West Ham Online

1st Test June 20-24 @ Headingley
England team : Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

No Bethell & various fast bowlers .. Atkinson, Wood, Archer unavailable

India lose Kohli and Rohit Sharma to retirement after the debacle in Australia

Crawley gone along with Duckett & Pope

Pope’s average in the 3rd & 4th innings of Tests has now slipped below 20 and is the worst of any English Test batsman in the history of Tests

Good to see a bit of aggro in the last over in a match blighted by blatant time wasting by both teams & weak umpiring in not moving the game on
The second day was 15 (fifteen) overs short which is cheating the paying public 
Fines have no effect so the ICC has to look at run penalties at some point to hurry the game on.
 

Gill out for 16 means he has 601 runs so far in the series
Has potentially 5 more innings to reach Bradman’s record of most runs (974) in a 5 Test series (1930 Ashes)
Bradman’s record was scored in 7 innings

Sums Zac up to a T

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/ ... third-test
 

Stokes injured his groin
No runners allowed so will have to see how he pulls up this morning 

Pant off with a finger injury
Jurel can substitute behind the stumps but obviously can’t bat if Pant is incapacitated 

Understand no Test batsman has been 99no overnight & NOT made a century

Massive first session. Match close to even with India needing 2 or  3 wickets with the new ball. 

Decent day yesterday, good to see that England can resist playing bazball when they have to. Crawley is still a major concern for me and the bowling is a worry but all in all,we are well set not too lose this one. Whether we win it or not is a different matter.

Thought England played correctly today even  if it was a tad dull to watch,  stokes needs runs two early wickets go down and decent pitch for the bowling team with bhumra back in the side. Simply dug in and tried to wear them down. 

Flying ants stop play.

Time to dump Crawley. 

MCC have advised members that due to the heat they can take their jackets off
But not their ties
 

I wasnt that far away

Dukett three it away Crawley got a good one. 

He has 18 already!
But Duckett is gone

Crawley will get 14 runs

England win the toss and BAT 
Definitely a batting day

Yes, Bumrah will be back
Deep was a big improvement on the First Test attack
Expect with the warm weather & a pitch that might have some spin they will pick Yadav over Washington too

Saw that Wood is training with the team
He is hoping to be available for the 5th Test

Fauxstralian wrote: ↑09 Jul 2025, 11:39 Archer replaces Tongue in only change to the England XI for Thursdays 3rd Test at Lords
McCullum has asked the Lords groundsman for a pitch with more pace, bounce & movement 
Didnt think coaches & captains were meant to do that by there you go. 
Does this mean the abandonment of demanding pitches that last beyond 5 days before deteriorating along with 65m boundaries (the absolute minimum allowed)?

Archer replaces Tongue in only change to the England XI for Thursdays 3rd Test at Lords
McCullum has asked the Lords groundsman for a pitch with more pace, bounce & movement 
Didnt think coaches & captains were meant to do that by there you go. 
Does this mean the abandonment of demanding pitches that last beyond 5 days before deteriorating along with 65m boundaries (the absolute minimum allowed)?

Hopefully Stokes has learn't his messon regarding after winning the toss not batting first. 

A nice stat.
Akash Deep took more wickets in this match than all of England's "pace attack" put together.

Not so sure about that.
Yes Stokes looks better when he deigns to bowl but Harry Brook, of all people, bowled more overs in India's second innings at Edgbaston. 
Shoib Bashir's one method of dismissal in this match was to lob slower balls up and hope the Indian batsmen hole out in the deep. There is a good reason why Somerset are letting him go at the end of the season. 

Atkinson Archer Cook & Overton are all in a 16 man squad for Lords so will be some changes you’d imagine
Coming up 4 days after being carted for 1,000 runs is problematic 

Something Gank posted regarding how we, as in West Ham, kept going back deep to defend and losing to late goals after going ahead due to the previously learned behaviour under the instruction of Moyes. England were the same yesterday; they could not bat to grind out a test match for a draw because they have forgotten how to do that as a team. They won't unlearn that before the Ashes series, where the wickets won't be so accommodating.

That England attack is one of the worst we’ve seen for years.

Losing Jimmy and Broad in quick succession was always going to be tough. But there aren’t too many test quality bowlers who stay fit for long enough. Atkinson is a good bowler, but has the sort of niggles that other pacemen have. Carse is not test quality, in my view. He’s a decent county bowler.

Plus, Bashir is just not a test player yet. Rolling over Zimbabwe does not count. There’s a reason Somerset don’t pick him above Leach, and the Baaaazballers need to accept it.

West Indies skittled for 143 & now haven’t won any of 14 series over the last 32 years v Australia 
2 Test wins this century while losing 26 Tests