England v India 4th Test

[Andreshotboots]

The oval is an absolute road also.

The last county championship game at the Oval saw Surrey score 820-9 the third highest ever score in this country.

Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s another draw.

Can't see England wanting to change that either being 2-1 up. People might suggest Stokes mindset will want to make it 3-1, but trust me he'd snap your hand off for a draw and a series win..

[Andreshotboots]

Are they creating pitches to last 5 days for the revenue?

A very good point and something I raised a few years ago. 2/3 day tests certainly don't suit the ECB, or the Test venues in terms of revenue for sure.

[Andreshotboots]

We make flat pitches now in England for some reason - may be it's so that it isn't a total shock when we play overseas, but I can't quite understand why we keep preparing them.

I also think there is a total lack of World class bowlers about. Yes Bumrah is quality, but he's not 95 mph plus liike Bret Lee, Mitchel Johnson, Mark Wood etc. Archer will bowl some quick overs, but he's been around 85 mph which is pretty standard for this level, and there is a huge void of top quality spinners in World cricket .

[kentonclaret]

A look at the County Championship Division 1 Table shows that a drawn match is the most likely result. Of the 10 teams they have all drawn more matches than they have won (apart from Somerset who have won 4 and drawn 4). Unlike Test matches they only span 4 and not 5 days to get a result.

[kentonclaret]

Further to my above post I would just add that we have seen 4 Test matches in this Series thus far and just a single draw.

[CoolClaret]

I also think there is a total lack of World class bowlers about. Yes Bumrah is quality, but he's not 95 mph plus liike Bret Lee, Mitchel Johnson, Mark Wood etc. Archer will bowl some quick overs, but he's been around 85 mph which is pretty standard for this level, and there is a huge void of top quality spinners in World cricket .

Australia quicks aside, you're totally right. I mean, our attack is pretty lacklustre.

Carse seems like a decent enough chap, but it's a far cry from the peak Broad/Anderson years (and their supporting cast) or the wonderful seam attack we had back in 2005.

Heard a great point maybe as to why - perhaps with so much white ball cricket (especially T20), the onus is more on defensive bowling and avoiding getting smashed around the ground, which requires a different skillset than trying to take 20 wickets in a test match.

[Bordeauxclaret]

Hopefully England have put their dummies back in for Thursday.

[RVclaret]

Thursday seems a pretty quick turnaround.

Wonder if the bowling attack might get changed up again.

Atkinson can’t be far off.

[Bordeauxclaret]

Jamie Overton has been added to the squad.

[nil_desperandum]

Jamie Overton has been added to the squad.

Unfortunately this underlines the current dearth of high quality seam / pace bowlers in county cricket.
Is Overton a good bowler? Yes, but is he any better than Carse, Tongue, Potts, Cook, Woakes etc.

Our best pace bowler this summer has been Stokes, who was regarded as our 4th seamer in the Anderson / Broad era.
If we had all of Atkinson, Archer and Wood fit for every test with Stokes as the all-rounder then our pace attack would look decent, but we know that that will rarely - if ever - happen.
Add to this, spin bowling has been ruined by white ball cricket. Spinners like Dawson are effective at bowling tight and thus taking wickets in shorter forms of the game, but as we saw for the past 2 days there's no craft or guile in his bowling and it's hard to think of any spinner who will be effective on Australian wickets.
The best we can hope for from Dawson is that he keeps one end tight.
So yes, it's always difficult to get 20 wickets at Old Trafford, but - as many of us said before the first Test - this is a very weak bowling attack.

[Bordeauxclaret]

Stokes out of the last Test.

Atkinson, Bethell, Overton and Tongue replace Stokes, Dawson, Archer and Carse.