There will be a concert held after the series, headed by Jellybean and "The Sweet" and with other artists performing classics such as "sweets for my sweets", "sweet dreams", "sweet child o mine", "the sweet-Test thing" (U2).
David Graveney will be host, preaching to the unconverted and making sure no evidence is left behind
Well Michael Vaughan's captaincy record against Asian sides is not promising, Bangladesh aside.
Vaughan (Captain)
vs IND/PAK/SRI - P7 W0 D4 L3 vs AUS/SAF/NZE - P16 W8 D4 L4 vs BAN/WIN/ZIM* - P15 W14 D1 L0
*Vaughan has yet to captain vs Zimbabwe
And here's an interesting comparison :-
Vaughan vs Top Seven P23 W8 D8 L7 (Won 34.78%) AS/AF/MT* vs Top Seven P17 W6 D3 L8 (Won 35.29%)
AS = Andrew Strauss, AF = Andrew Flintoff, MT = Marcus Trescothick
Strauss, Flintoff and Trescothick have captained vs West Indies or Bangladesh once between them, the drawn 1st Test of this summer. However, their combined record puts Vaughan's captaincy into perspective.
And on the unbeaten home record since 2001 :-
Series P12 W8 D3 L1* Tests P40 W25 D9 L6
*As things stand, all Tests from the 2002 home series vs Sri Lanka up to and including the 2nd Test defeat to India in 2007
Only six Tests lost in six summers, however England have played West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in 12 of those Tests (30%), 11 of those Test wins (44%) and they also account for HALF England's home series wins.
Will England level the series? Possibly. Vaughan will have to improve on his captaincy in the 1st Test in particular and the 2nd Test, perhaps realise he needs to prove he's a 'great captain' and not just live off the myth. The toss could well be crucial, I think England may stumble simply because they have to win and pushing for that win could lead to mistakes. And perhaps Vaughan will realise you have to make the most of opportunities when they come along, you don't necessarily get the rub of the green later and England may have already blown their best opportunity already. You can never count on being in that strong a position twice in a three Test series.
I wondered if there was any significance in length of series so had a look at Vaughan's record by Tests played in a series
2 Tests
SERIES P5 W3 D0 L2 TESTS P10 W6 D2 L2
3 Tests
SERIES P1 W0 D0 L1 TESTS P3 W0 D2 L1
4 Tests
SERIES P3 W2 D1 L0 TESTS P12 W9 D2 L1
5 Tests
SERIES P2 W2 D0 L0 TESTS P10 W4 D4 L2
Two of the '2 Tests' series were against Bangladesh, the rest part series where he missed a Test. The series results were for him, although he's yet to make a difference to the series result ie he lost one Test in Pakistan, England lost the series anyway. The only 4 or 5 Test series he hasn't won was when he took over from Hussain vs South Africa. He certainly seems to be more effective in longer series, maybe suits his indecisive captaincy style
Only one session gone and England are in trouble. This forum must be too if mine is the first comment on the Test!
INDIA 131/1 - well what a surprise, the England bowlers not having quite the impact they had against West Indies and before excuses rain in about the importance of the toss, England have a "proud home record" which by default means ALL touring sides get to call at the toss and therefore this feeble excuse was never brought up while England were winning............................
Still it could be worse, they could be skittled for 88 like Essex! Could be a long day for England, their best hope for a win at this point looks like getting India out for 300-400 and somehow batting like a team of Laras to force home a first innings lead. I bring to mind the Test vs South Africa where Flintoff got a lot of plaudits for his cameo innings but MOTM Trescothick set it up with a double hundred
and there we go again...ian howell makes a mistake with dinesh karthik's decision. Wow..unless its obvious catches or bowled, these umpires cannot be trusted anymore!
This series has to be remembered for the some of the worst umpiring decisions ever and to think that even the 'great'Taufel got a couple horrendously wrong in Trent Bridge....but not too worry as I'm sure he walk away with the umpire of the year award again as the others on the 'elite' panel are much worse!!
LOL@Prior. The fat boy just ain't cut out to be a WK. The guy to too buffed up behind the stumps and he thinks he's Arnie. WKeppers are usually agile and very athletic, this guy is just a fat and a chav. Better off putting the likes of Prior and his foul mouth in the street corner with the rest of the hoodies.
Originally posted by Delta Force: 58 byes in 5 innings! this man calls himself a wicket keeper?
We can't afford to have a keeper who averages around 12 (Read and Jones down under!) However they do need to be able to take a fair percentage of catches and be tidy. Part of the problem is the England mindset that they need an all-rounder keeper, true if they stupidly play Flintoff at six but with six batsmen they could have played a keeper proper. When will Foster be recalled? He averages something like 25 in Tests.
Of course Prior was flavour of the month while scoring runs for fun against the weak Indies, it was fairly predictable the keeper debate would return the minute he dropped a catch. Byes are pretty inconsequential unless he's conceding more than he scores runs.
And if England were winning would anyone care? If England were creating lots of catching chances and missing them then you could point fingers, while drops can be crucial you can't assume that the one catch would mean India or whoever would roll over thereafter.
My colleague said that England should have had five wickets overnight and I said we could have had only three but for a dodgy LBW call. He said "that's part of the game" to which I replied "so's dropping catches" - can't have it both ways.
