Has Root fckd this up?

[sainthelens]

If anyone watching the test match, what du make of the declaration? Way to late for me. Got a feeling they'll run outa time tmrw.

 

[Jackmanandboy]

Two thoughts: Root does not want them thinking they can smash enough runs to give them a chance, Root wants to have a bowl tonight and in the morning with a reasonable ball. Otherwise I'm not sure what England were doing for the last hour or so.

 

[PSumbler]

The play after tea was just odd - we didnt look to have any urgency at all and setting over 400 to win feels just too cautious

Only time will tell - when it is all over by lunch tomorrow we can hail him a genius again but I cant help but feel we havent left ourselves enough time

 

[sainthelens]

Two thoughts: Root does not want them thinking they can smash enough runs to give them a chance, Root wants to have a bowl tonight and in the morning with a reasonable ball. Otherwise I'm not sure what England were doing for the last hour or so.

To me the declaration shows a dis trust in his bowlers. I think to win they should have dangled the carrot to India. Bit of a cop out I feel.

 

[Swanjaxs]

If India end the day 3 down he'll be a genius.

He's a genius anyway imho

 

[Cooperman]

He has a much better feel for the conditions than what we do so I can only assume that he factored pitch wear into his decision.

 

[TheLoneRanger]

Root's field placings for his spinners in this final session was weird. Most of the time he had only 1 close to the wicket fielder, and no gully, no leg slip behind the stumps - there was hardly any pressure put on the Indian batsmen to survive.

Yesterday when India lost their 6th wicket, he did exactly the same on the new batsmen, he seemed to back off and allow them time to play themselves in.

 

[dickythorpe]

He keeps getting criticism despite being our best batsman.

 

[JackSomething]

He keeps getting criticism despite being our best batsman.

Agreed. No problem with people questioning his captaincy decisions, but the criticism of him as a batsman is weird. He had a down year last year, but it looked worse because of the incredibly high standards he'd shown previously. Moving up the order to cover deficiencies in the line-up didn't help either.

There's long been an element of England cricket supporters who love to criticise some of England's best batsmen. I often follow Test matches on the BBC live text and over the years have seen Root, Cook, Pieterson, Bell, Vaughan, Strauss, Trott and others all come in for regular criticism. Apparently if you're not scoring a ton every Test, you're crap for some supporters.

 

[dickythorpe]

Always made me laugh when people criticised Peterson.
It was so obvious they didn't like him personally. As a batsmen he was the best I've seen for excitement and some "legends" could only dream of having a half of his flair and mental attitude.

 

[Jinxy]

Yes

 

[exiledclaseboy]

Not at all. A declaration would have given an India side which (without a couple of its best batters) just chased down 330 in Brisbane a chance.

 

[J_B]

Anyone who saw what India just did in Australia could be forgiven for being a bit cautious.

 

[Jinxy]

Looking good. Oh me of little faith!

 

[Jinxy]

Looking good. Oh me of little faith!