as much as I/'d love to see Franklin in the team, I can't see him or anyone we have available at the moment being able to knock these indian batsmen over! they are just that much better than us.
Mind you it doesn't help when your captain decides to bat first on a wicket that is clearly going to be bowler friendly with conditions suiting swing early - I'm with Martin Crowe on this one, we chase better at home, so we should do what we are good at!
they will destroy us at auckaldn - especially with the short boundaries square!
Granted the Indian batsmen are a class act, but a lot of the bowling to them has just been poor. The pressure the Indian batsmen have put the bowlers under has been immense but rather than bowling good lines and lengths and accepting that these guys can score off good balls our bowlers have made it easier for the Indian batsmen by bowling long hops, full tosses and both sides of the wicket. You cannot set fields to that rubbish.
Totally agree with you regarding the decision to bat first, strikes me as too much tactical thinking not enough smarts. Our bowlers needed every bit of help they could get and the only way batting first was going to help was if we posted a giant score and pressured the Indian top order. We do not have a great record of setting big targets and 270 was only par.