Taking the Positives

‎'Taking the Positives' was a phrase that became synonymous with England towards the end of Duncan Fletcher's reign as coach (and under Peter Moores to be fair), and it would be the phrase rolled out every time England got a disappointing result. 

It would be fair to say that Fletcher hasn't had the chance to take 'too many positives' out of his last 8 tests in charge of India. But at last there is a positive and it comes in the form of 'Virat Kohli.'

Kohli's maiden test century could have come a lot earlier than it has, but it has come at a timely moment for Fletcher with pressure on him to make wholesale changes to the team after their second whitewash.

With some of the old guard likely to be replaced, the last thing Fletcher needed was clamour for Kholi to be dropped also, or to be carrying him in the test side at a time of transition.

Obviously one innings doesn't mean he has made it at test level, but for a while at least it should silence the doubters who have pigeon holed him as an ODI batsmen only.

So at least that is one less headache for Fletcher in the immediate aftermath of his latest thrashing

Is this the end for Chris Tremlett?

With the news that Chris Tremlett has flown home from the Pakistan series with yet another injury, I wonder have we maybe seen the last of him in an England shirt?

That might sound a bit extreme, but there are a number of reasons why I think this may be the end of his international career.

He is only 30, but he has had a lot of injuries over the years, a point which won't be lost on the selectors.

He was out of the side in the summer with injury, and he is now out again injured. As a result of this the selectors might feel his old fitness frailties are coming back to haunt him.

This latest injury set back might just persuade the selectors to look to the future. There is now Steven Finn pushing hard for a recall, the return to fitness and form of Graham Onions, the emerging Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker, and not forgetting the man in possession of the shirt when he is fit - Tim Bresnan.

Onto the first days play of the 2nd test, and I'm sure that England would have settled for Pakistan finishing the day on 256/7 when they won the toss and elected to bat on a supposed flat, batsman's paradise.

But with the dropped catches, I'm sure that Andrew Strauss will be disappointed to not have already bowled Pakistan out, Anderson's drop off Misbah could be the most costly.

I was pleased to see Monty play, if the pitch was supposed to be flat and unresponsive to seam, then I didn't see the point in playing three seamers. Pietersen would have ended up bowling a shed load of overs and all 3 seamers would have been rotated and under used.

At least England have shown they are prepared to stray away from their rigid tried and tested routine. Yes, it has got them to No1, but refusing to improvise a bit and adapt to conditions could see them quickly lose No1 status.

Today showed that England aren't scared to change tactics, playing two spinners might not win them the game, but I believe it is the right move for this test match.

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England can play with a straight bat after all

But it's not any of the batsmen I'm on about, it's Andy Flower.

By straight batting away questions about Saeed Ajmal's bowling action (mainly in the form of his Doosra), Flower is basically refusing to endorse his action and has probably risked causing another breakdown in relations between the two sides, relations that are currently only in the infancy of being rebuilt.

Personally I think it's more the English media up to a bit of mischief making, rather than the England team. The media seem to be asking anyone at any opportunity about Ajmal's action, and in fairness so far Strauss, Prior and Swann have already refused to take the bait, instead insisting it isn't an issue.

Andy Flower on the other hand, didn't say anything, but he also refused to endorse the action when asked, a lack of action he must have known would grab the attention of the sh-t stirrers and headline writers.

Flower isn't stupid, which is why I'm fairly sure this was a calculated (lack of ) response.

I think that Flower knows that England were outwitted by Ajmal and the Pakistani management in the build up to the 1st test. He knows that Ajmal has got into the heads of his batsmen with all this talk of the so called Teesra, etc, so by doing this, Flower is attempting to try to unsettle Ajmal.

By allowing the debate into Ajmal's action to take off, Flower may be hoping that all the talk will unsettle Ajmal and put him off his game. If he has got into the heads of the English batsmen though, it makes me wonder will it make any difference anyway..... as it is probably already way too late.

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Well Played Pakistan

I'm not going to come on here tonight and start writing about how bad England were as I don't want to take anything away from Pakistan's amazing result today.

I thought that Pakistan have been excellent in this test match and they thoroughly deserved their win. It wasn't just the win that was impressive, but the manner of the performance as Pakistan comprehensively outplayed England.

I seen bits of the match and I listened to most of the rest of it on TMS. The thing that impressed me the most was the discipline and control of the Pakistan team, they are not words I would generally associate with a Pakistan cricket team.

They all seemed to be pulling in the same direction, they looked and sounded committed in the field, there was no stupid dropped catches and no reckless shots when batting. There was also no getting over excited and no erratic behaviour at all.

The team now seems to me to be more in the mould of the personalities of the impressive captain Misbah and the calm Younis Khan, as opposed to the recklessness of Shahid Afridi or the laziness of Inzy.

I have to say that this performance didn't come as too much of a surprise to me (England's batsmen did though) as I follow test cricket closely and have noticed how Pakistan have been steadily improving over the last 12-18 months.

Wicket keeper Adnan Akmal (the disciplined Akmal brother who can catch) did surprise me, he was outstanding. For me, he was my Man of the Match. He didn't miss much behind the stumps (unlike Kamran) and he applied himself when batting (unlike Umar). I don't think it would be too harsh to say that he looks the least talented of the three brothers, but by far the most effective performer of the three on this showing.

He dug in at a crucial stage on Day 2 when England were fighting back and then played brilliantly with the tail at the start of Day 3. His innings could really have been the straw that broke the English camels back, the extra 25-35 runs he got that he probably shouldn't have been allowed to by England could have struck the mental blow that downed England's batting in their 2nd innings.

Result aside, it was a bit of a disappointing test match, it was only really competitive on the 2nd day. That was a proper contest between England's bowlers and Pakistan's batsmen, the English bowlers must have wondered why they bothered busting a gut given the pathetic capitulation from most of the batsmen.

England's batting was pretty poor, they could have been spooked by Saeed Ajmal, I don't know. I certainly expected them to struggle against him, but he didn't really have to weave any magic - apart from to Ian Bell - as England's batting seemed to be petrified of him on Day 1.

Along with Ajmal, Umar Gul is a more than capable test match bowler (and a world class one day performer), but this attack wasn't exactly Wasim and Waqar in their prime, there was no Shoaib Akhtar steaming in. There was no reason at all to suggest it would take care of England's batting in the manner it did, so why did it?

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Oh dear, England

I went to bed very tired on Monday night for various reason, mainly a lack of sleep, so with this in mind I didn't intent to get up early to catch the start of the cricket - and what a good decision that turned out to be!

I did wake up early(ish), so I checked the app on my smart phone (no, I don't have an iphone, I'm not rich enough) and seen that England were 42/4 (effectively 42/5 as Pietersen was facing a slow left arm bowler at the time),  and at that moment I knew I'd made the decent call not to get up.

I also noticed on the app that there was a brief report on it about how Strauss had won the toss and elected to bat, and it mentioned how the wicket didn't look like it had anything in it, etc. Not sure if they were the words of Struass' or not, as I was still too bleary eyed and shocked to take it all in properly.

It was at this point that I put my phone down and rolled back over and tried to get another half hour.

When I finally surfaced it was lunch and - yes - Pietersen had succumbed to the left armer and we were 5 down. I then sat through a pre recorded interview with Andy Flower in which he talked about how England had upped their run rate in test cricket, etc, etc - I have to say that the irony of the situation certainly wasn't lost on me with just the 55 runs in the previous session.

I couldn't help but feel at the time that the whole thing had a calamitous look about it, that it was destined to get worse.

In the end I'm not sure it did, as to get to where we did get after the lunch scorecard wasn't a bad effort in the end. Matt Prior showed what a top class performer he has now become and just about kept England in the match with his innings.

I think (and hope) this could turn out to be a significant innings for Prior, because I can see his keeping perhaps struggling a bit on these dusty surfaces over the next three tours. This innings may be just the tonic to get him off on the right footing and will hopefully set the tone for his performances both, in front off and behind the stumps.

England are just about still in this game, will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.

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Will Fletcher finally wield the axe in Adelaide?

There will be at least one enforced change for India in the 4th test with MS Dhoni (probably gladly) suspended, but will Duncan Fletcher show a real signal of intent and drop one of the old guard and start rebuilding now?

One of Dravid or VVS could/should go. They've both been great players, but they are the two you would have expected to dig in a bit more during this series and make things a lot harder for Australia. Instead, when these two have gone, the whole team has collapsed around them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not blaming just those two, but they are two of the rocks that this test side is built around, but they haven't resisted enough lately, they are both getting on now and are most definitely not the future for India.

Dare I also mention Sachin Tendulkar's name in all this without being bombarded with complaints? The great man surely has to be close to the end of his test career also, when did he last play a defining test innings for India?

It sure will be interesting to see the India team that takes to the field in Adelaide.

Where is Ijaz Butt?

An Englishman has just pleaded guilty to a charge related to spot fixing and Ijaz Butt has this magnificent opportunity to be shouting about it from the roof tops, but he is no where to be seen or heard. Why?

Butt must have been longing for this day over the past 18 months so that he could put the boot into England over match fixing and kick us off the morale high ground that we English had been occupying until yesterday.

I'm sure though that he will speak out soon, he is probably just preparing a massive statement and is taking his time over it to make sure he gets in as many telling blows as is possible.

So come on Ijaz, hurry up. I can't wait much longer.....