…and so has Gambhir. Dhoni’s put himself in ahead of Jadeja, which is a nice thing to do for the new guy.
Anderson’s having a great match - 3 for 24 off 9 overs.
87-4 at the close. One hell of a day for England.
Yep.
Also, this is a good a time as any to admit that my assessment of Pietersen’s status after the SA series (something like “there’s no way he should be playing in November”) was about as utterly wrong and ill-founded as I could have made it if I’d been trying. One of the big positives about this series is that he has “reintegrated” so well. Of course, nothing succeeds like success.
Hindsight is 20-20. I once thought Cook had reached the point where the only option was to send him back to county cricket for a while. I’m glad the KP issue seems to have been resolved, leaving him out would have been a travesty.
On Bell, he’s had a horrible year, but I don’t think dropping him is an option. Last year he averaged over 100, at a strike rate higher than KP’s. I assume he’s trying, and we know his game is fundamentally sound. He could still be a key player in the NZ and forthcoming back-to-back Ashes series.
I think Bell is a different case to both Cook and KP. Dropping him has given him a kick up the arse before, in 2008, after which he got himself back in the side to contribute well to the Ashes in 2009, scoring a pretty vital 70 odd, if memory serves, at The Oval to help us win the series. There is still time for him to be dropped, sort his head out and get back into the team for Aus. I think it better for the NZ series to be used to look more at Root and potentially at Bairstow as well.
All just opinion obviously. Man-management is half the battle at this level. I imagine that the coaching team know better than either of us what will motivate him.
And for something totally original, surely it must be getting close for a few of the old timers in the Indian team to call it a day. Tendulkar is the obvious one.
Tendulkar should be booted out of the team. We shouldn’t wait for him to announce retirement because he may still be ‘enjoying cricket’, who knows. 
I am hopeful. Our real batting is yet to come ;). Jadeja averaging 90 in FC cricket this season, Chawla about 70, And Ashwin is in form.
But really , Anderson bowled superbly!! He is the main danger man as far as I am concerned.
Team for Test matches against Australia next season:
- Rahane
- Gambhir - captain
- Pujara
- Kohli
- Sehwag
- Rohit Sharma or Abhinav Mukund
- Dhoni
With no more failures tolerated from Gambhir, Sehwag or Dhoni.
Nope. India are having enough trouble with England with eleven players - they’re not going to beat Australia with seven. 
Australia can be pretty hot and cold… I would not invest money on that 
The problem I see here is that you’re giving the captaincy to Gambhir, and then qualifying that you’re not going to tolerate more failure from him. I’d suggest that, whoever you make your captain, you get behind them and give them a run in the side almost regardless of their personal form.
well, they are going to struggle against the Aussies with even 14 players if they play like they have in last 1.5 years.
good point , I am ready to give him a long run but if he averages 30 or less against australia in a series which will be a long series I would drop him. But I will not tell him this at the time of giving him the captaincy.
Great fight back this. Dhoni and Kohli doing a very good job. This game is far from over. A collapse by England could well result in a loss. Batting in the second innings will be an interesting time.
Yes, great fightback, pressure back on us now. Question is, can India accelerate from here? I’d say a draw is the most likely result, closely followed by an India win. Don’t think anyone would be surprised if we collapsed at the final hurdle, in difficult conditions. An England win is now looking really unlikely, as if we do bat well we won’t leave enough time to bowl India out.
One small point in our favour, there should be no confusion whether to bat for time or runs. On this pitch, they are the same thing.
And then India lose four in a last-hour flurry and there’s every chance England will carry over a small lead. No need for England to worry about winning, we should look to bat India out of the game and if they don’t like it they should have come up with a better pitch.
This mostly. All results are still very possible from here, and India’s fightback today has brought them back into the game without getting them ahead of the curve. I’d still rather be England, even with just considering the match situation and not the meta situation with the series in the balance.
Good game!
I would expect England to win from here but a good fight back from India.
As for world rankings, it seems to me that England and RSA are clearly the top two and Australia probably third (bit strange as they were one win from being the number one rated team).
It was great today being able to watch test - I was spoiled. First Australia against Sri Lanka and then followed by England and India.
I have tried but I can’t watch 20/20.
This match hangs in balance imo. Chawla who’s a wrist spinner will be crucial I think. Late fall of wickets may not be a bad thing for India as they are the ones who need to enforce a result, England will take a draw from this position and take the series.
Aus. dominating SL in other test match. Cicero, u know when Pat Cummins is expected to come back to cricket? I remember him winning a match against SA, has been out ever since. And Pattinson??
Winding its way towards a draw, although there’s still plenty of time for one team or the other to lose a sudden clutch of wickets and get into trouble. It’s as likely to be England in trouble as India.
4 sessions left, and England are a sessions worth of runs ahead. If they bat for 2 more sessions, until lunch tomorrow, they may get enough to let India think they can get the remainder if they push. And it’s shown to be very hard to push on this pitch.
Very finely poised right now, with 12 overs still to go today.