Joe Root

[Colgates_shaving_foam]

Sibley's role is to wear down the new ball and soak up overs from the best bowlers. If he scored at 1 an over he'd still be worth his place, especially away at the top sides.

 

[Pak_Doo_Ik]

Last time over there we scored at least 400 in the 1st innings in 3 tests and still lost 4-0, you need to bat big. Sibley (other than getting out) played a perfect sub continent innings, we need to be looking to bat at least till tea tomorrow whereby we should have in the region of 450, then 10 overs after tea to take that above 500, leaving the Indians facing 20 overs last thing. Even if that happens they could still bat till the end of day 4 and be 100 or so in front and leave us trying to bat the last day out for a draw.

I love cricket in India, it seems really slow and boring and then bam you're suddenly scratching your head thinking how on earth are we now on the defensive.

 

[Zoophonic]

Zzz you don’t get this test match lark very well. Spoilt by the one day game.

Burns tried to “crack on” with an outrageous one day shot and it could well have cost us dear. Fortunately we have one of the worlds best batsmen in Root to get the innings back on track. Sibley can grind them down at a slow rate for two days for me. Crying shame he lost his wicket on the final ball of the day.

 

[changingman]

Bat through tomorrow for me. Rate should creep up as we start to get into the middle order. Average first innings 337 in Chennai. Still plenty of time in the match.

If the pitch behaves likes those in Sri Lanka the combined second innings will take around half an hour.

 

[davidmills]

Bat into day 3 if we can.
Score all your runs when pitch is at its best. Let them bat (twice hopefully) when it’s turning square.
Even if we draw it will take a lot out of their bowlers for last 3 tests.

 

[zzzzz]

Astonishing. Would love to see him do against the Aussies as well.

 

[r00fie1]

This lad has got to be up there amongst the best.
Winning the Test on his own
He makes it look so easy

 

[ForssAwakens]

BTW. Sibly did his job but he was scoring at 1.8 runs an over. That doesn't win you a Test Match. You won't get beat hanging around like that but this team is IMO better than that.

Codswallop. It was a proper test innings. Set anchor and batted the day out

 

[ForssAwakens]

And recently we haven't had openers who could dig in, exposing Root too early.

There aren't many openers who can play dogged for 25 overs and then explode thereafter. Gooch stands out in that respect, maybe Vaughan too for a few years.

This is the reason I thought Compton should have been given longer. Used to stick around to at least take the shine off and with a run of games may have started scoring bigger