That specific incident wasn't unethical as Pratt was on the field for Simon Jones, who was clearly injured and took no further part in that game or any other for England since. If you're allowed a substitute fielder you might as well pick a good one.

However the practice of substituting fast bowlers with a "specialist" fielder so they can have a rest / ice bath is well dodgy. I think there was a proposal recently to abolish "runners" for injured batsmen - after all, when bowlers are injured you just have to manage with one bowler less. I'm all for that, and I'd go further by not allowing members of the fielding XI to return to the field for the duration of that innings if they've been replaced by a substitute, and not allowing them to bat higher than 7 in their next innings. If someone wants to go off for a breather his team should have to manage with ten men until he returns.

Is the rule still in place that says you are not permitted to bowl until you've been back on the field for the same duration you were off it?

I would imagine so. I'd forgotten about that TBH. I think you were allowed up to ten minutes off the field before that kicked in, or something like that.

Hope golden boy does better with the ball than he has with the bat.

Great knock from Pietersen though, dug in and done the job the team needed from him.

How has this India team got to no1 in test cricket with this bowling line up and fielding prowess? They are hopeless.

We're probably about to find out....

Ok probably not, England's bowlers making some serious inroads here. Dare I mention India need 92 to avoid the follow on?

They're a one dimensional team, completely reliant on their batsman scoring a shedload of runs. They can't bowl or field to save their lives.

Fair play to Stuart Broad, totally proved me wrong with that effort today.

We still need to put some runs on the board though, can't see the Indian batting go so meekly second time around.

If that one dimension is powerful enough to get them to No.1 they're still No.1. I mean, West Indies haven't had a great spinner since Lance Gibbs retired in 1975! (Before their fifteen years of domination without losing a single Test series.)

India have consistently started slowly in overseas Test series in recent years, although their bowling certainly seems to lack strength in depth beyond Zaheer, Ishant and Harbhajan.


I'm glad Broad did well and hope he continues to do so, but that's not to say Bresnan couldn't have done a similar job, and he'd done more to justify a place for this particular series IMO.

Agreed.

Think some people have been too quick to write India off, their bowling attack isn't going to challenge any of the all time greats, but they've got us on the rack a bit here.

Shaping up to be one hell of a last couple of days.

Not doing too shabbily this morning this "one-dimensional" side are they??