Here we go again as England are thrashed by India in India

Oh dear. A lot of fears were realised in Hyderabad today. This was just like the World Cup. This was just like England in the sub-continent since the year dot. This was all thoroughly depressing.

This was certainly the beginning of India’s Payback Plan. How the summer in England hurt them. “Wait till we get you on our own pitches,” they said. We laughed. But deep down, we knew. This was always going to be a fiendishly difficult series, especially when you lose the toss as England did today.

There was no pace and bounce to trouble the Indian batsmen, and how they loved it. There was actually a little uneven bounce, which meant that a total of 300 was way above par. England bowled reasonably well for 30 overs. For the last 20 they were awful. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with the blades of his personalised helicopter shot whirling merrily, was quite magnificent. But England hardly bowled shrewdly at him.

At around the halfway stage England looked reasonably placed. Comparative scores were promising. But you can never rely on such an ending that the Indians managed. Alastair Cook needed to crack on. He played nicely. All the others played horribly.

The Jonathan Trott debate will be revived. And so it should be, despite the fact that is Warwickshire supporters will be enraged. He was slow again. This is not to say he should be dropped. I do not think that. He scores runs for fun. The record books are in his favour. When he scores runs, England generally win. But if he is to bat at No 4 as he surprisingly did today, then he should not play. He simply has to bat at No 3 or not at all.

And no less loud should be the Kevin Pietersen argument. He took one excellent catch, but otherwise fielded very poorly. He didn’t score runs again. What is happening, Kev? Time is running out in international one-day cricket.

What of Ian Bell? A very sound observer of the game recently told me that he thought Bell is currently the best batsman in the world. But he can’t make it into England’s one-day side. It is a curiosity.

Is Samit Patel really good enough to be a second spinner in ODIs? I’m not sure, and I was championing his cause before the World Cup, when I was lamenting his sloth as regards fitness.

These are a lot of questions that need answering. It is only one game, yes, but it is too familiar a scenario. Should we panic? How can England turn things around?

Thoughts please, especially from my Indian friends, who must be very happy again now!

This is how the Ashes used to be

I’ve seen days like this before. They were when the great Australia team were in their pomp, and England were in their pocket. How things have changed. We are supposed to be watching the contest for No 1 spot in the world, but instead it’s like watching the World XI against Ilford second XI, as Graham Gooch once so memorably described the gap in class between facing Richard Hadlee at one end and his New Zealand colleagues at the other.

For the truth is that, if I said it was no contest yesterday, I am not sure how to describe today’s play. I think there might have been a moment in the morning session when the Indians bowled reasonably well to Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook, but otherwise all I can recall is England’s dominance; their sheer, relentless and regal dominance.

So Cook is back. He’d only really popped down from batting’s Mount Olympus for a change of scenery. This was England’s greatest Test batsman in action. Not that he is quite yet, and not that he is the best to watch. But statistically he will stand way, way above all others by the end of his career. As he does, today he just batted. And batted. He was 182 not out at the close. He’ll bat some more tomorrow.

When Strauss was bowled around his legs, sweeping, it was a surprise. It was also a no-ball from Amit Mishra, who for a leg-spinner bowled a remarkable amount of those today, but umpire Simon Taufel decided not to consult the technology before Strauss had left the ground. It was a rare mistake.

Ian Bell was a little skittish. It has been an emotional week for him, with the death of his mentor Neal Abberley, and a Test on his revamped home ground. And he was a little too keen to exert his positivity on proceedings. He was dropped at slip by Rahul Dravid of all people, but actually copped a decent ball form Praveen Kumar.

At 252-2 the stage was set for Kevin Pietersen. And he did not disappoint. His 63 was a delightful knock, full of the vim and cockiness we have been missing. His lbw decision to Kumar, to whom Pietersen seemingly stands as close to as he does to his own stumps, was marginal but justifiable. Pietersen did not like it one bit, mind.

Eoin Morgan should have gone twice, but Sreesanth and then Dravid again inexplicably dropped sitters, as India’s misery was complete. Their fielding has been abject all tour.

England are now 232 ahead. Will they declare tomorrow? Will they heck. They will get as many as they can. There are signs of considerable turn. Graeme Swann will be warming his spinning fingers.

Thoughts?

Is this pitch doing too much?

I’m in a bit of a quandary here. For most of the summer I’ve been campaigning for spicier pitches in order to inconvenience the visitors from the sub-continent. Now with this pitch at Trent Bridge, I’m worried things may have gone a little too far. I’m hoping that it might be the combination of the overhead conditions and the greenish pitch that is making batting look so treacherous.

But when you see the ball that dismissed Graeme Swann, sending him off to hospital for an x-ray, you do wonder whether that really should be happening on the first day of a Test match.

What cannot be denied is that it has provided some absorbing cricket. India’s bowlers bowled excellently until Stuart Broad and Swann counter-attacked late on in a thrilling partnership. It certainly wasn’t mindless slogging. It was calculated aggression in conditions that demanded such an approach. There always appears to be a good ball waiting around the corner for you on this pitch, so it’s best to score as many runs as you can before it arrives.

Pace and bounce are what I’ve been advocating all summer, but whilst there has been some bounce here there has not been a great deal of pace. But, with a rather uneven covering of grass, there has been seam movement to add to the swing through the air that you always seem to encounter at Trent Bridge these days.

So how did England play? Alastair Cook wasn’t out (where is that damned DRS please?), Jonathan Trott was done by swing, Andrew Strauss battled hard before losing patience and driving loosely, Kevin Pietersen was distracted by some dark windows above the sightscreen, Eoin Morgan was plumb lbw, Ian Bell was caught behind cutting and Matt Prior got a beauty. Broad and Swann rescued them.

No-one, however, played as poor a shot as Indian opener Abhinav Mukund. What was he thinking, driving with such abandon first ball? The battle to the close was then fierce. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman rode their luck and used their expertise. They will need plenty more of it tomorrow.

What do you think? Is the pitch too helpful? Or do you like this sort of cricket?

This was a famous performance from England

A famous, famous victory for England. You can point to the early withdrawal from India’s attack of Zaheer Khan, the absence from injury of Virender Sehwag as well as inconveniences to Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir, but the visitors are still ranked the best team in the world. And they won a hugely important toss when bowling conditions were at their most favourable on what turned out to be a flat pitch at Lord’s.

Yes, it was not the sort of featherbed for which I have often criticised the Lord’s groundstaff, but it was still mighty hard work for England to finish the job off today. But that is the thing about this England team: hard graft does not scare them. They are the fittest side in world cricket. They stick to simple plans, because they know they will eventually bring rewards. International cricket is about creating pressure and England’s attack does that wonderfully well. I thought they bowled quite superbly today, all four of them. Some of the Indian dismissals looked like poor shots but often you should not judge a dismissal simply on that one ball. The others around it usually set up the error. That was the case regularly today.

You will know that I predicted a draw, but England’s bowlers were simply too good. It would have been a travesty had they not achieved victory. And how fitting it was that Stuart Broad took the final wicket. What a selection that was. He rose to the occasion magnificently as did the others today in front of a packed house. It did not quite happen for James Anderson in the first innings, but it sure did today. His was as defining a performance of those in the match of Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Broad, heroes all. We should not forget Jonathan Trott’s batting on the first day either. It was always quite stirring stuff; proper Test cricket at its absorbing best.

But it could have been a day that was marred by the absence of the full Decision Review System. India don’t like it, and although that alone should be insufficient to stop its use, they are powerful enough within world cricket circles to persuade others to vote with them. So we have this ridiculous situation whereby lbws cannot be referred. And there were two plumb decisions today – against Tendulkar and Suresh Raina- that were not given. There had been some excellent decisions earlier, but those two were shockers and were exactly the types of decision for which the system was introduced. Just imagine the fuss had the game been drawn and either of those two players had still been there at the end! It cannot be allowed to continue. There is simply too much at stake these days for such howlers to remain unrectified. Television viewers could see the mistakes, and so the players and umpires should be able to too.

What now then? I said on Sunday that it would be a 2-1 series victory for England. But that was with a draw here. It will be fascinating to see how India respond. You never know, it might be the result that Duncan Fletcher needs. Maybe he can exert more influence. I’d never easily write off a side with him as coach, that is for certain. But it looks like 3-1 to me right now, especially if Zaheer is missing for more than one Test. I certainly can’t see a draw in the remaining Tests.

What do you think?