The much awaited Lords match is just few hours away. I relate Lords a slope drama stage for cricket with lot of twists . We all witnessed in the most recent World Cup victory for England. I jinxed it by saying drama, we have a twist already in Stuart Broad injured from a slow jog slip accident. Now the play masters are scampering pillar to post to frame the best XI for the match with Jimmy also going through a niggle.
For Team India, the drama is whether to introduce a new artist for the spin act. The 2018 series was disastrous for duo spin bowlers (why two in England?) of India. The good news is Nathan Lyon had a good run in 2019 at Lords.
Team India has gone from strength to strength with the pace attack and had a taste of success in Australia. This has put Virat in a pretty place to frame a template pre-loaded with four pace/seam bowlers. Even if needed with five pace bowlers is a reality as the bench strength is excellent.
On a lighter side, the modern Test cricket in England is:
The top four play test cricket
The next four play “The Hundred”
The next three play “T20”
And Weather play ODI (One Day Interruption)
Probably Moeen Ali’s warm up coming from “The Hundred” would have been to just stare at the Red ball for sometime (like Yoga Netravayama) . In my opinion, the call of Moeen came little late and I was expecting when Ben left the team. Good add to the team.
England team wouldn’t have felt the pressure playing in home due to top order unsettled and bowlers injured. Root is already inspiring the lead which the remaining batters should soon covert it and settle to gain control.
Team India would be dreaming of a finish on Independence Day with a victory. If that happens it will be an icing on the cake. It is high time Virat turns the template into a cookie cutter scripting victory in English soil.
It is game on for Cricket fans.
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