UKC

Blimey it's all going downhill from Sri Lanka and the first test here.  At 6 down we'll be lucky to string it out for 3 days at this rate.

The wheels are coming off. But at least it looks like we’ll have the chance to bowl at their top order under the lights

Odd to have only picked one spinner (+ Root). However, its the batting that's the problem just now! 

Almost like India are a) very much better than Sri Lanka and b) much better than England in these conditions

Awful batting performance. Let's see how Broad and Anderson bowl under the lights!

Edit: Zak  Crawley is quality though. 

I was woirred when I saw the ball doingvartwheels in the first hour. What chance has the batsman got. Crawley was batting sublimely and then 2 consecutive balls jump in opposite directions. A travesty of a pitch and we have only one spinner. Makes a mockery of a 5 day test format.

The first test gave some hope for a slightly closer series, I suppose.

I'm not sure that England's spinner options is looking so great at the moment. 

Impressive new stadium....pity they didn't spend more to get a decent square laid. 

Instead of dragging Chris Woakes round Asia for 2 months, we should have taken Chris Jordan as sub fielder for every game. 

Not a match for the batsmen. 17 wickets down so far, and only 8 in double figures. 

Rooty 3 for 0

Incredible!

All the pre-match talk of the pink ball swinging in day-night conditions seems to have been a little misplaced. 

Exciting first hour! More successful than I had anticipated.

This is crazy cricket! 0 for 2 wickets in 3 balls. I've never ever seen this before. Pitch totally unfit for cricket!

Chance that England still lose by an innings at this rate

First target achieved 

Stokes to the rescue.....if he or someone can pump in a mid to high double digit score that could be the game

you sort of wonder that if someone 20-20'd the game for a few overs then that could be a huge advantage...

.. or they could be out straight away

With Stokes gone it’s looking tricky 

What a game of cricket.

Looking like a tough task with Stokes now gone. Hopefully Root and Pope can but together a half decent partnership.

Any lead over 100 and I think we have a chance on this pitch.

I spoke too soon.....

No need for Root to bat, just get him to open the bowling

You like this? 3.5 days of cricket lost. We're watching some of the best batsman in the world (both teams) barely scoring 20 runs. So disappointed for channel 4. 

I can't wait for England to play New Zealand in the summer. Hopefully we'll see some proper test cricket.

Agree - this isn’t a test match, the pitch is totally unpredictable and more a game of luck rather than skill 

Speaking of New Zealand, they’ve just won a 20/20 where more runs were scored in 40 overs, than in this entire match. 
 

Not much good for the Indian authorities missing out on three days of revenue from crowds.

Although India lost half the number of wickets that England did and in amassing more runs. England really didn't bat very well even if it was a dodgy pitch.

The aim should be to produce pitches where a fair balance exists between bat and ball and in Test Matches one wants a result on day four or five.

What a pitch! Over in two days, this isn’t test cricket. Let’s hope the next pitch plays more evenly and we get a balanced match. 

It's more like a village cricket strip !  I can understand the Indians prepping a spin friendly track but this makes a mockery.

It was scarcely believable, should the ICC investigate? In retrospect the team selection was poor but England were expecting to be seam bowling in a day/night game.

I heard it was the quickest completed Test since 1930 odd......given that way back they had uncovered wickets that produced some bizarre results, that is quite an achievement.  If a county game saw 30 wickets fall in a day and a bit, the inspection team would be in and the county would expect a rollicking, fine and even points deduction.

To sum up the state of the wicket. Joe Root got 5 wickets for 8 runs... 

While Jimmy Anderson, with 611 test wickets to his name, got none.

I was watching the groundsman at lunchtime. He had  a dustpan and brush and half the top surface of the pitch was swept into his dustpan. The pitch was a dried up, dusty, dirt ridden disgrace. Not fit for a schoolboy match and that's not to excuse England's batting. 

Disappointed. Wanted a decent test match and the pitch didn't deliver.

No 5 day tests in India then - Ch4 can't be too pleased with all the lost advertising revenue

And the next game is one the same ground. Hope we are not batting last!!!

Another disaster from the openers. 30 for 3 at one point and now 90 for 4. Vaughan reckons 300 should be doable on this pitch but we won't know what the par score is until England bat. Having said, that Vaughan does seem to want to make a virtue out of talking crap.

Blimey. Jack Leach just hit a 4 to take England past 200.

Sounds like England are well short of a par score. But if they bowl well, they could still be in it having won the toss. 
edit: need to keep India to 320 max. Not sure that will happen.

The new shiny nut has done Gill.

Anderson hasn't given a run away yet!

Need another wicket before these two settle.

Well 121 for 5 was looking good,  but that last session was a disaster and the match is gone. Brilliant batting by Pant!

Time to roll out the “Pant’s on fire” headline again 

Shades of Adam Gilchrist !

No magic turnaround here.  Heading for an innings defeat.  The first innings did the damage.  In this innings the spin is a different class.

An awful performance by England since the first test and one they will want to forget in a hurry. The bowlers have been OK but the top 6 batsmen, Roots first test innings aside,  have been awful. The one dayers and T20s will be interesting. 

That's simply not true. A few other batsmen had a good innings given the pitch conditions. India have better bowlers and more batting experience to push an advantage on such pitches. The real issue is will world cricket allow such pitches in future? A pitch should hold a reasonable prospect of a five day match. Covid affected umpire selection is also bad luck for England in this series. Its a massive plus that we beat India in a game in India.

Our main issue has been not posting a first innings total.

Eh? The batting has been awful. What's not true about that? The Indian batsmen have coped well enough on turning pitches. Look at the averages. By any measure, Root aside, the stats are awful. The pitch in the  first test in Ahmedabad was rubbish but the rest have been decent,  what you'd expect in India. No different to a grassy swinging pitch at Nottingham or Edgbaston. 

Make that comparison to those county's groundsmen and you might get punched!

Don't trust me...read the sports press if you can't remember any other reasonable innings on these 'spin minefields' of pitches.

Agreed. Losing the test series 3-1 is not terrible, but the nature of those defeats was. 
We had 25 players in Indian for at least part of this tour, but only 3 top order batsmen, who all really struggled. For most series Burns, Sibley, Crawley is our most settled top 3 since Strauss retired, but they looked pretty clueless on big spinning wickets. Keaton Jennings would definitely have been selected at some point if he’d been there. 
With DRS batting against spin is much harder than it used to be, the ‘best’ middle order in test cricket (Pujara Kohli Rahane)failed too,  but most of our batsmen didn’t seem to have a plan.