Shame about Hameed seemed to be doing well at that role we havent filled since Trott left the scene, the ability to occupy the crease for hours without getting worried about scoring at a high rate. You need those players against the top teams.

To be fair mate, Henman wasn't rubbish but he was certainly not in the same stratosphere as Andy Murray

Bit overdramatic possibly.

Daft post, I look forward to the all England club every year. It's typical of the British to moan about how poor we are at a particular sport then chuck brickbats at someone who excels and achieves world status. Incredible ignorance really.

Andy Murray has earned ALL the plaudits fair and square, a genuine, hard working dedicated proffessional. Fantastic son and ignore the bitters.

Some people much prefer 'Tiger' Tim, because he was very nice whilst being rubbish, oh and cos he's a nice Home Counties type.

The Eddie Jones bandwagon keeps rolling.. He offered the opinion that George Ford " can be better than Beauden Barratt ( the All Blacks fly half) No doubt about it " He then went onto to say " People rave about Beauden but I don't "

I just love Eddie's attitude - 11 on the spin now . Come on England !

The All Blacks ? Cynical and the experts in the dark arts as well as high tackles. Ferocious and brutal game , made great viewing. . Like I said, the England v Ireland game in Dublin next March is going to be epic.

Watched the ireland - all blacks games - both tremendous contests. The All Blacks seem to get away with things - forward passes for tries, a second high tackle whilst one guy is still serving a yellow card, giving penalties away on their own line and only conceding 3 points, where other teams may pick up yellows, but they are ferocious in the tackle, and pretty much all of them are lightening quick.

Ireland badly missed Sextons kicking in Dublin.

To be fair after the WC I thought they'd go through a big rebuilding process, but they've really kicked on and must be favourites for the 6 nations. I don't understand why England played Fiji - very little to be gained from it.

Fairly predictable outcome once India had won the toss , got to 500 plus and England didn't match or get ahead of them .

Three points regarding this match and test matches in general :

1) Instead of a toss ,is it time to allow the visiting team to choose whether to bat or bowl ? I've not looked at the statistics but my gut feeling is that on the whole, home teams tend to be huge favourites in test cricket . In many cases groundsmen are instructed to produce wickets that favour the home team , whether it's green seaming wickets or huge turning wickets . This might be negated slightly if the away team can choose to bat or bowl first .

2) DRS now makes it incredibly difficult to survive on a turning wicket. In my day it was drummed into you when playing a forward defensive, to get your leg as far down the track as possible , bat and pad together . You had to be incredibly unlucky to be given out if the ball hit your pad, DRS has changed the way batters approach defence and makes the whole job far more difficult , especially in circumstances like today where survival is the be all and end all.

3) Virat Kholi needs to study an O'Level in the " Spirit of the Game " His dissent shown when the DRS decisions went against him was nothing short of a disgrace

Two positives to take forward to Mohali . The last time England were in India , Cook was captain and came back from a 1- 0 defeat to win 2 -1 . Down under , in an attempt to arrest a 5 test losing streak , Australia have turned to Middlesbrough born opening batsman Matt Renshaw , who lists his hero as Alastair Cook

Regarding the toss, I think the toss should be at the first game of a series, and alternate each match afterwards- it still may not work out even in terms of you may not get the key games, but was it Alec Stewart who lost something like 12 straight tosses?

Djokovic is a marginally better player, but has lost form after nearly holding all 4 slams at once earlier this year. Murray has ended the year well, and has played every week over the last couple of months whilst Djokovic has missed a few.

However Murray is a brilliant player, in probably the hardest single player sport.

As for the English hating, well he lives in Surrey with his English wife - so it's obviously not that much of a hatred.

Could Cook have been a bit more positive setting up the declaration? Twenty or so more overs for the bowlers to play with...

Cook never sets a positive declaration, he's pretty negative as a captain. Had India had a bit more time, and a few less runs they may have been more attacking, creating more opportunities too. Instead we really gave the Indians and our bowlers a pretty unachievable target.

India got to 60 odd for none without much problem. The game is going nowhere at present, looks like England need to go all guns blazing in the morning, and hope to catch the Indians napping, and hope the pitch starts to change on days 4 and 5. On a positive note, it would be difficult for England to lose from the current situation.

Well Hameed is going to get his shot. I have huge reservations about a 19 year old lad who has had only one domestic season and only finished his a-levels in the summer. Playing against the current best test bowler in the world, against the current best test team in the world in their own back yard which just so happen to be conditions we historically/are struggling in.

Kerrigan was destroyed by his England experience but on the other side of the coin Jimmy took his opportunity and became the leading English wicket taker. With my county hat on I don't see too many good scenarios for Lancs if he excels he'll not play much for Lancs again in a side with a woeful lack of batting quality or if he bombs and does a Kerrigan Lancs have lost their hottest prospect.

Agreed, if anything should have been given the chance vs Bangladesh - surely that was the whole reason for playing them before India.

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/port-vale-mackay-keeping-watching-brief-vale-park/story-15062483-detail/story.html

Was giving advice to people wanting to invest in football 4 years ago. May be worthwhile seeing if he knows anyone wanting to invest heavily in a struggling championship side?

Loved watching Mackays teams at Ewood- proper players, brought together with truely no money whatsoever.

David Goodwillie http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-37618907

Its an interesting case in that it appears to be a drunk women who consents to sex with a sober male, able to then claim rape afterwards because she wasn't sober enough to say no? Sounds very familiar to the Ched Evans case.

The law effectively says yes, but in balance it puts the onus more on the male. It also introduces a grey area, at which point does the female move from being able sober enough to give or refuse consent?

theres one idiot who nearly every night rides down preston centre the wrong way and laughs when you rant.

Just clothes line him Abs.

The important word here is good. The cycle "path," a very loose description on London Road is dangerous and covered in potholes, badly repaired tarmac, street furniture and has so many entrances from the left it's very difficult to maintain any sort of rhythm up hill. At one point there is a huge road sign with double legs set into the pavement. The sign is too low to ride under and there is very little room to go round it.

London Road is a typical example of the lip service paid to cycle routes in order to be perceived as a cycle friendly area.

Agreed, I don't know the state of the cycle path, but if its not in a fit state, then I don't blame people for not using it. The filter roads from the left need to give priority to the cycle lane too, as there's nothing worse than having to stop and restart on a hill of even that gradient.

I'd also guess there needs to be clearer segregation between cycle and pedestrians, so you don't have to stop because someone isn't paying attention.

I think all cyclists would prefer that to riding slowly up that hill in heavy traffic with people trying to squeeze past you.

What if it's one of the arrogent pricks who refuse to use a cycle path like on London road ? Are you expected to give them the same width ? That will mean crossing into the other lane and in rush hour big traffic jams because mr B. Ellend is to arrogent to use the path provided.

If its a major route, and a good cycle lane is provided, then cyclists shouldn't be allowed to use the main carriageway - for everyone's safety.

On London road, the only change would be to give cyclists going up the hill priority over those joining from the left.

A new eight team city-based t20 comp to run alongside t20 blast. Blackburn rovers has already been ruined beyond repair now the powers that be have started on my 2nd love Lancashire. I'm all for Lancashire v Yorkshire etc but manchester vs Leeds nah not for me.

Sounds daft to me. They need to just move the top 8 counties through to a super-8s system instead of the full season, mid-week quarter finals and the very lengthy finals day.

No, what is sad is that you can't make any kind of neutral, non-threatening and simply curious observation about certain topics in society without the P.C. witch-hunters descending like some slavering, pompously-righteous jackals.

It is literally censorship. There's no logic, balance or intelligence shown. You mention nationality or race in anything other than the most positive and glowing terms and the social justice warriors go into loud virtue signalling mode.

I don't know whether it's motivated by the true belief of practically religious zealotry or it's such a mostly thoughtless, bad habit, like an unavoidable tick. I'm inclined to believe the latter considering its applied when there's absolutely no need whatsoever (as in this case) and it has blatant holes in consistency. For example, as Jim continually shows, racism towards Americans, English and other easy Western targets is acceptable if not encouraged.

Neutral observation? Aye whatever.

These people have every right to support England or Pakistan.

What is sad is that yet another thread has been brought down to having a pop at a certain ethnic section of our community.

Competitive total for England. Think Pakistan may need to follow on.

Why not play this game yesterday?

I think Tom has a point though. Less supporters = less staff. It's not nice but it's a consequence of boycotting. You can't have it all ways. By the way I'm as upset as anybody about the tunnel girl. Surely she was unaffected by the size of the crowd.

Don't disagree that less supporters require less staff, just that I should be allowed to have an opinion that the new gantry is a waste of money when we are broke and have plenty of other priorities.

No issue with people boycotting and fully understand it.

However I do agree that if you are making a stand by stopping money going to the club you kind of lose the right to complain about cut backs

Everyone is allowed an opinion Tom.

You do realise people are getting laid off right ?

Erm that goes with the territory ...people boycotting ..less people required ..?

Do you think its a good use of money?

Definitely looks like it will affect the view from the last few rows when the ball is in the air.

The A team had a decent day too.

http://www.ecb.co.uk/scorecard/39573

Just the 425 for 1 off 50 overs, including a 220 not out, and a 175 not out.

When do we declare though? I just don't get the logic at all (there is none).

Like I said, it was irrelevant in the end.

1-1 and England so far on top, you wouldn't bet against a 3-1 series win.

Totally agree with your second paragraph Baz - spot on. Can't agree with your first one though, we've introduced an unnecessary risk into the proceedings buy giving the weather a chance to intervene. We don't actually know how long we've got to bowl at them.

2 days and no rain forecast.

Like i said, it's not the decision I would have made, to not enforce the follow on, but it's unlikely to be proven right or wrong in this case. If it was only 1 day left, then its a risk that they could bat through, 2 days- well I just can't see that happening.