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

10 wickets for Deep & India win by 336 runs

3rd Test starts next Thursday at Lords
India likely to bring in their PROPER spinner Yadav plus Bumrah returns so even stronger bowling line up
England bowlers who conceded 1,000 runs have a quick turnaround. Maybe they’ll risk Archer to freshen it up
Cant see them changing the batting line up but surely Smith needs to move to 6 above Stokes

No century in 2 years, average of 20 odd over that period I think. Shouldn't be batting at 6.

Thank fuck he can bowl now, as he's looked our best bowler.

If he wasn't skipper stokes wouldn't be in the side on current form 

India's dropped catches gave us the first test. Other than Brook and Swith in this test, we would have been beaten by an innings and something 

Crawley & Pope in the top 3, Stokes at 6 ahead of Jamie Smith, is utter madness.

Read something about Bashir, all his wickets in this series bar 1 have been batsmen charging him down when trying to pile runs on when already well set. His overall stats are appalling.

Fucking brainless 

 It will be interesting to see tomorrow how our middle to lower order bats discpine wise. I can see us all out by tea. I hope I am wrong and we bat longer

 

We're pretty stuffed for seam bowlers. Tonge, Woakes, Carse and Stokes are all coming back from injury but at least Tonge and Woakes played a first class match before this series test.
Of the others in the squad:
Atkinson and Cook have not played since the first Zimbabwe test in injured and rested respectively.
Jofra Archer has bowled 18 first class overs in 4 years.
Jamie Overton was coming off injusry and has played one first class game this year.
Matk Wood might be available for one of the last two matches of the series. 

Piss poor bowling from Tongue and Bashir. Tongue bowling bouncers outside leg stump to Pant what does he expect from that? Bashir bowling long hops to world class batsmen WTF? I hope Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are available for the next test.

Crawley's new straight back technique they were all raving about has gone well.

Pope looking his usual scratchy self early on the innings. Let's hope he survives.

India score 1,000 runs in a Test match for the first time in their history
England have an hour tonight & all day Sunday to make 608

Unfortunately for England, quality English spinners are a very rare breed, Since Underwood retired, only Two English spinners, have taken over 100 test wickets each, in England. And one foreign cricketer (Warne). Ubderwood, took the majority of his iest wickets in Engalnd, on uncovered wickets.

More benign pitches being prepared in England, is certainly showing up England's paucity of bowling options, both spin and pace.

 

The expectation is that a bit of ‘manipulation’ is going on
England are aware they haven’t found a quality spinner yet and want to attack while batting 
Seemingly under instruction we see fairly lifeless pitches without too much bounce or movement that don’t deteriorate much if at all on Days 4 or 5. Grounds are smaller & where they are not the ropes are brought in to make scoring easier
Obviously most if not all countries prepare conditions to suit themselves (particularly the current opponents) & it’s up to the away country to adapt as obviously the India dominated ICC are hardly going to call it out

Swiss. wrote: ↑04 Jul 2025, 12:00 I'm glad we are in the shit so finally Stokes the cretin can stop this nonsense of putting the opposition in to bat first. OK we got away with it last test but I'd like to see us chase 350+ agains Starc, Cummins, Haselwood and Lyons on the fith day. (OK we did that once due to a brilliant Stokes innings). 

Insane days cricket. England's scorecard has 6 ducks yet they still scored more than 400. Jamie Smith broke the record for the most runs scored by an England wicket keeper in an innings. And it's the first time England posted six ducks in an innings. To think we were 84-5 at 11.45 this morning.
Mad stuff!

Plenty of time for a result with 2 days left
Imagine India will be a bit gun shy setting a target tomorrow after Headingley 
Looking at 500+ you’d expect with a bit of a bowl late Saturday 

As a cricket nerd, I have researched Zac's batting average. His best year was 2023, 41.28 against Australia, Ireland and New Zealand

Zak Crawley | Cricket Career Stats, Records, ICC Rankings | Wisden

Great counter attack by England
Without Bumrah (& Ashwin & Shami) India’s attack is LIMITED 

Imagine Bethell will be in the team by the end of the series 
Crawley seems likely to be picked as long as Robert Key is involved.

I like a lot about Stokes as captain, but this bowling EVERY time he wins the toss is tiresome.
As for his batting, he has been horrific for a few years now, and should be batting 7 at best as a counter attacker, because he can't stay in for long.

Also, normal service resumed for Crawley and Pope. After the one performance last week (which if India held their numerous catches would have won at a canter) that we have the best top 7 in the world... it's low bearing fruit, but talk about over reacting to 1 test. How the fuck Crawley gets away with it, time after time, is incredible.

Smith should be batting 3, or even opening, he's made for top of the order. Crawley not worth discussing, but Pope is far too shaky for the first hour, and you just can't have that at 3, no good scoring big runs once every 5-10 Tests. Either Pope or Robinson should take the gloves and bat 6 with Stokes at 7.

Even though we are getting SMASHED, test cricket is the best cricket. A test of a team's resilience in this case

I'm glad we are in the shit so finally Stokes the cretin can stop this nonsense of putting the opposition in to bat first. OK we got away with it last test but I'd like to see us chase 350+ agains Starc, Cummins, Haselwood and Lyons on the fith day. (OK we did that once due to a brilliant Stokes innings). 

Contrasting captains …
Gill 269
Stokes first ball  

England persisting with these fairly lifeless pitches which don’t deteriorate much with the boundary ropes brought in for Bazball Chasing
Unfortunately can’t do that away

Same story for Australia … 50/3 & then Head  & especially Carey & Webster get them to 286. No time for the Windies to face an awkward start as umpires got the light meters out 
See how they get on this afternoon 

England chasing 587 made a horrific start. Brooke and Rrot steadied things a little, 77-3 at stumps.

Over in Grenada, the Aussies are 145-5.

 

Englands day at 211/5 but India have brought it back to even with a 99 run partnership to finish.
India’s tail was woeful at Headingley (last 6 wickets for around 30 in both innings) but will be looking for another 100 runs this morning 

Most countries bat first if conditions are anything like decent but Englands love of chasing means they may never bat first in a home Test for the foreseeable future