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The Surfer

England's bark worse than their bite

Andrew McGlashan
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
Andrew Strauss, the stand-in captain, talks with Simon Taufel and Ian Howell after a heated incident involving Kevin Pietersen and Zaheer Khan, England v India, 2nd Test, Trent Bridge, 3rd day, July 29, 2007

Getty Images

England are certainly not going about their business quietly. Earlier this season James Anderson was fined for a confrontation with Runako Morton and yesterday, at Trent Bridge, Kevin Pietersen and Zaheer Khan were involved in an exchange. It's a notable shift in England's attitude, with the young bowlers trying to show increased aggression at the crease. Martin Johnson, in the Daily Telegraph says the tactics aren't convincing.

England's in-your-face, tough guy approach has frightened India so much in this Test match that the visitors had to be satisfied with a paltry first innings lead of, er, 283. And it might have been considerably more had it not been for the assistance of umpire Simon Taufel's index finger.

And in The Independent, James Lawton argues that it has been the excellence of India's middle order which has led to England running out of ideas.
This, after all, is the team who for two days now have been generating the kind of sledging, body-language aggression that any self- respecting Aussie would probably suggest might be most appropriately dressed in a girl's blouse.

In the Times, Richard Hobson says that a stand between Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly is the same as a Lennon/McCartney collaboration.

Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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