Nasser and Athers preview England’s first Test in India! | Sky Sports Cricket Podcast 🎙️

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Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain round up all the news and look ahead to England’s first Test in India, with Ath planning a night out in Hyderabad!

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Okay this is the sky Cricket podcast previewing the first test match between England and India which starts on Thursday 4 a.m UK time it’s in Hyderabad of course which is where I am uh NASA is still freezing back in London how are you nas yeah the freezing has gone the

Winds have picked up definitely I’d rather be in hydrabad having a hydrabad birani than uh in Essex nothing wrong with Essex for all our Essex listeners but missing you missing this is the of the Biryani and you are the king of the birani I’ve never been to hyroad before

This is my first time amazingly I’ve only been here for a couple of days still a little bit jet lagged but I wandered down to the to the hotel breakfast area last night and two of my dining companions were tucking into a birani and I immediately thought of you

It looked rather good I’m surprised you’ve had time for biryanis and dinner it’s there’s been some news nightmare for you you’d have been on that flight and you’d have landed and You’ probably had to write four different articles straight away Haven you it’s been a newsy

Week I I’ve not quite known I I mean Cricket always throws up these things doesn’t it always throws up lots of news ahead of a test match particularly a big one between England and India perhaps I’ve not known quite as much happening um as you say we had the the Harry

Brooke news uh first of all withdrawing from disclosed personal reasons that was a big blow for England and a big blow for the series then we had the verak coing news which uh came on 24 hours after that or thereabouts I think I was on the flight just as that happened so I

Wrote something for the paper when I landed in in Hyderabad obviously the news around shy bashier uh who’s had to return home in the last 24 hours in order to expedite his Visa we’ll talk about that shortly and England announcing a remarkable team today just the one specialist SEMA three Spinners

Which will include the uncapped so far Tom Harley and Ryan armad who’s only played one game and Jack leeu as played since the island test with a with a stress fracture so all that has come together ahead ahead of this test match I I don’t know where do you want to

Start well I mean we’ll get on to the newsy stuff it’s all very important but having looked at that side they think it’s going to spin now you are our spin our pitch expert on the ground I cannot tell from Chelmsford what that hydrabad

Pitch is going to do what do you make of the surface and do you think England have gone with the right team three Spinners and Mark Woodwards the sea amazing team it’s a very basball team isn’t it I’ll just give you I saw the pitch yesterday um and he doused it but

It it was like two-tone it was a bit darker in the middle and drier and Bearer at the ends which obviously is the giveaway um and clearly the other giveaway is the England team as you mentioned but today when it got to the ground it was under a under a kind of

Red what we’d think of as a Hessian mat so it wasn’t actually open open to view today but on what I saw yesterday and clearly what England have seen you’d say that it’s going to spin pretty early on in the game um and that’s why England

Have chosen the team I mean it is an amazing team there’s going to be a lot on those spinners there are four of them effectively uh with Joe root of course who I I never think you should discount if you go back to Ahmedabad in 21 what

Did he get five for eight or something in six over so when it spins you know he bold fires it into the pitch and he thinks like a batter so never underestimate and discount Joe root but there’s a lot on those spinners heartley a debut cap um they think you know he’s

Tall and he’s fast they think he’s a kind of axar Patel equivalent we shall see um you know he’s very inexperienced uh In First Class terms never mind International terms and then Ryan armad who just had that startling one test in karach a year ago and then

Leech as I mentioned who hasn’t really bold I saw Jack yesterday he’s looking very trim you know Swan on our podcast said that he’d worked with him recently in Abu Dhabi and he’s very very fit but as you know there’s a difference between physical fitness and bowling Fitness uh

And he hasn’t bowled in a match and competitively since suffering that stress fracture uh back in what was that early June I suppose um is it the right team you know that’s that’s the proof will be you know what comes out of it but all you’d say is that what what this

Lot are very good at I think is is looking at the conditions and kind of ignoring history and the and the history of England teams and saying this is what we need to do here whether that’s scoring at six and over in Pakistan to give us enough time to win the games

There or whether just picking a very spin dominant uh Team um this is what we feel uh can win in the conditions here so um you know they’re not afraid of taking a risk as you know do you think that inexperience maybe as as well has led to the four spinner option you’ve

Obviously got leash like you said hasn’t bowls since June July you’ve got the two inexperienced Lads in Harley and Ryan armed and you’ve got Joe Ru do you think if it had been Swan and panar as an example you could have gone with a more balanced side one SEMA you know if you

Lose the toss say tomorrow and it’s not doing that much and you’re starting with spin you’re leaving out one of our greatest ever cricketers in Jimmy Anderson arguably well our greatest ever bowler in my eyes who has a pretty good record in the subcontinent and you look

At other countries have tried to hit India with spin historically Shan didn’t get Shan War didn’t get that many wickets and that much success in India orbe against the Fab Five and a different Indian batting lineup I would like a more balanced bowling attack but I guess with Ryan ahmed’s second test

Match Harley debut leech not bowling for a long time they just feel they need three because obviously looking at that surface it’s going to turn you’ve just come from the press conference what else was spoken about in that press conference um yeah just to back up your

Point about Mark Wood really I mean you know he is he is the one seamer as you say it’s a remarkable thing really when you think how injury prone he is and how they’re going to have to look manage his workload you know he’s not a bowler

Who’s can bowl long spells for you he’s going to be a four five over Maximum bowler so again that tells you everything you need to know about the surface they think is in front of them um and I feel that they feel they just

Want a bit of pace it’s going to be Pace or spin um and that’s what they’ve gone with um what else came out well let’s let’s start with the showy bashier news first of all which when we were there yesterday they weren’t sure whether he

Could get his Visa in Abu Dhabi which is where he had to remain because he didn’t have his visa and now and then it transpired late yesterday that he had to he has to go back to London which is where he is now I believe uh to get to

Expedite that that Visa I mean it’s a ridiculous situation really when you’ve got a team that was selected in early December um and the Visa was applied for in the second week of December I think we now what January the 24th and he hasn’t got it I mean it’s obviously not

The first time that a cricketer from a Pakistani Heritage uh has had Visa issues in getting getting into India we saw that with Usman kagi was delayed the Australia tour saki Mahmud I think for for a lions tour um so it’s not the first time it’s happened but where

Stokes was was pretty strong on it he said you know he’s devastated for him uh and because he is he is the captain and he sees a 20-year-old there who he having his first experience uh in England colors was looking forward to coming to India for

The first time um and was in he wouldn’t have played I don’t think but was in in the mix because he’d impressed and of course as you know it only takes a little bit of illness this time last year before that test match in pindy lots of players went down ill and and

Suddenly you you know you need your full compliment in the squad and so if a spinner goes down ill overnight England would be forced to compromise on on the balance and selection of their team so Stokes was pretty strong on it Rohit sha was sympathetic as well he said he felt

For him and hope hopes he gets here pretty quickly um and yeah it’s it’s a bit of a ridiculous situation yeah agree it just feels like a mess and an avoidable mess that a 20-year-old is in back in London trying to sort out his Visa you know seven weeks after that it

Was first tried to be sorted out and you know I think Stoke spoke about bashing some heads together you just feel that shouldn’t be happening the day before a test match it should have been happening weeks ago it was a mess that could be and should have been avoided really um

And also some notable absentees how have India taken to the news that ver at Coy uh their star a world star I mean I kind of likened it a little bit to maybe Tiger Woods missing a major back in the day just because of how big verat COI is here I don’t

Need to tell you um you know how big he is in terms of eyeballs on television uh column Ines in the newspaper he he he he is still although he’s not Captain he’s still by Far and Away the biggest star in the game here uh and again you know you’ll know that

Supporters in India often you’re never quite sure which they support first the the the big name player or or the team you know they’re often drawn to the to the superstars of the game and no bigger than verat Coy here so um again undisclosed personal reasons obviously

We wish him his family all the best don’t know what they are I I don’t look at these things through parochial eyes now I don’t look at it through English eyes you know 20 years ago when I was playing if I was playing under you or Captain I’d have thought well thank

Goodness for that we don’t have to bowl at verak Coley but I actually look at these things from a bigger picture now um I find him a fascinating batter to watch I find him an absolutely fascinating cricketer in general to watch you know when he’s in the field

Even when he’s not contributing he just buzzes around with so much energy he’s a very kind of mag magnetic and charismatic cricketer so I think the series is diminished by his absence both as one of the best players and just the character and personality so I obviously

Wish he was playing and I’m sorry that he’s not even though it does make it a lot easier for for England if you look at that India batting lineup now it’s not like the days of the Fab Four without verat COI you do feel there’s two or three players there that have not

Yet absolutely cracked test Cricket whether through inexperience or in shubman Gill’s case just quite because it hasn’t happened for him in the way that it has in in Odis so from England’s perspective you feel that there’s a bit of there’s a few chinks there to to

Maybe prize open what what do you think yeah I completely agree with that no no side can replace verat COI he’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game and also from what we saw in the World Cup everyone highlighted and focused in on beating sachin’s record

But actually every day you watched him back what struck me was what great Nick he was in the sound off the bat the positions he was getting it orbe it in white ball Cricket um but he was getting in some fantastic positions he then went to South Africa on that difficult pitch

And got runs when others didn’t which showed what sort of uh what sort of form he was in and I think that’s why going back to India and not having KI I think the pitch in hydrabad I think it was always going to spin but I think it obviously helps India’s late middle

Order that the balance of their side in these conditions look a lot better so you go back to their last test match in Cape Town away from home on a dicey pitch they had bumra eight and famously lost six for none because it was a very long tail now in Indian conditions why

Are they so good in Indian conditions a they have great players b they have three great if not very good Spinners but also so the balance of their side with possibly depending on where he bats you know Jer at seven Ashwin at eight akshar Patel at nine they are three

Genuine all-rounders in those conditions so they have a bit more batting depth at home but you’re right you know shazah has still to prove himself orbe England have bounced him out um at times I can’t imagine that maybe wood will go at him at some stage if he does start belting

Spin around roit still a world class player so it is a an opportunity for for England but they’re missing Harry Brook themselves and if anyone epitomize this England side and how they’ve gone about their business in the last year or so it is Harry Brooke

And that is a big loss for England as well yeah I agree I’m I was really looking forward to seeing Harry B Brooke play here he obviously burst onto the scene last year did brilliantly in Pakistan pitches as you know very different here Pakistan much kind of harder that grayer soil much flatter

Surfaces much more spin friendly here and Brooke hasn’t really cracked it in India yet I was looking back at his record I think he’s played a couple of under 19 test matches here and did modestly albeit you know small sample size long time ago um but only had that

One innings in the IPL so this was an opportunity over five tests against an absolutely top-notch attack um to really challenge be challenged and challenged himself um so a little bit he’s not you know he’s not as big a name as verat Coley but I reckon after Stokes root and

Leech he’s probably the one that England didn’t want to lose more than anybody else because they feel you know he’s got everything to offer there in the middle order I’m fascinated though that say Harry Brooke was here what do you think England would have done it actually has

Saved England a very tricky conversation and decision around Ben folks and Johnny Baro that’s all eased now with the absence of Harry Brook it made things straight forward although Stokes waited till the day before the game to announce his team it was only the bowlers the

Last four that he was debating the first seven once Harry Brooke pulled out was set in stone with bestow at five Folks at seven what do you think they’d have done if Brooke was here I haven’t really thought about that to be honest you’ve completely thrown me

There I mean Brooke would have Brooke would have had to play and I think they would prob would with you um I think bestto unless they think I’ve always said it’s a difference between what they would have done and what I would do if they honestly think and they look at

That pitch and they think it’s going to be an absolute bunson burner of a pitch it’s going to spin from day one I do feel you need your best Wicket keeper so if it’s going to be like that I would pick folks definitely but if you think

It’s just going to be a good pitch that spins a bit then you’re going to need either the extra batter or the extra bowler probably the extra bowler you’ll need to get in at least another SEMA if not one more and then the balance of your side without Stokes being able to

Bowl then a losing Stokes as the allrounder B then you play two Wicket Keeper batsmen in be stow and folks seems like a luxury but given this pitch and without Brooke I think they’ve done absolutely the right thing thing in going with um folks as your Wicket

Keeper just I want to touch on that actually on on Ben Stokes he’s looking fit he’s looking trim as a lot of the England Lads are you know one thing about having a bit of a break as you know if you can work on your Fitness and

Your diet and and all everything that goes around being a professional cricketer what what has Stokes said about his Fitness the knee op how successful it has it been he’s not going to bow at all in India don’t think so watched him yesterday and he was pounding up and

Down uh the length of the ground really it was about midday actually not burning hot here in hydrabad but just pleasantly hot but he was timing himself running the length of the ground back and forward really punishing himself as you do uh and he looked in very good order

The knee looked fine um and he looks trim as you say they they reckon he’s lost between about 8 and 10 kgs um following that knee operation he talked a little bit he’s always been very Co about his knee ahead of the operation when people asked about it he

Just said look it’s it is what it is you know that kind of phrase that they all use these days um but he actually went into a little bit more detail yesterday he said surgery should always be seen as a last result which I agree with having

Had back surgery myself as a 21y old but he said it had got to the stage with the swelling and the pain where the surgeon said you’ve got to get it done and he said it was a bit more than a cleanout he said he had a bone spur removed uh

And and and you know some something done to the meniscus so it was a bit more serious than perhaps he was letting on ahead of having that operation and consequently it means that the rehab period is a bit longer as well or a bit more serious so he’s got to the stage

Where he’s physically fully fit and he’s obviously available for selection he leading England out as Captain and batter but it’s that difference between being physically fit and able to run up and down side to side and then running in and doing something very unnatural like bowling you get to the crease you

Slam your front foot down you know you twist and turn and so he’s got to get back into bowling so he effectively said that he won’t be bowling here in India uh competitively but he’s hoping as he gets through this tour which is seven weeks long he’s going to start getting

Back into bowling in the Nets and then he hopes to be back to some kind of allrounder status in the summer I mean he’s 32 now you know he’s probably P the peak as an allrounder if you’re thinking of a fast bowling allrounder as a seam bowling allrounder but there’s still a

Hope that you know he’ll be able to bowl um you know from next summer onwards but I think the days of him being a 20 over a day allrounder are pretty much gone but if you can get 10 overs out 10 overs a day out of him or if you can get 10

Overs a day out of himself it really helps to to balance that side so um fingers crossed that there’s no reaction to to his knee operation you’re never quite sure I remember it way back when I had a back quite a serious back operation it’s in the back of your mind

The next time you come to play You’re crouching over your back you just hope that fingers crossed it all goes well and and even though Stokes is pretty inexperience he’s had a lot of operations before he’ll still have that slight nagging worry in his mind when he

Goes out to bat so fingers crossed on that front what what did you think of the the brook replacement obviously the lions were out there and had just played a couple of games and you know Josh mahanan had played well Keaton Jennings had played well but they went for Dan

Lawrence you think that was fair enough and that was consistent with selection I think so just because he’d been around the ashes Squad hadn’t he he was the the next man in and the difficulty as you know is that he’s been playing T10 and T20 cricket I think he was in the Abu

Dhabi T20 went to the big bash uh either side of Christmas and and then had gone to the il20 um so his whole winter had been short form white ball Cricket taking a few wickets in a big bash with that ridiculous off Spinners that he bowls um

But that’s very different from the kind of cricket that the lions are playing four day hard Cricket in armad dead um so bannan I suppose would have been the one because Le and Jennings who also got runs a top of the order Lawrence’s middle order the others in the middle

Order in that Lions team are the likes of Dan mousley and Rue James Rue pretty in experience so it seemed to me the obvious pick uh but and Lawrence arrived yesterday I think um but clearly wasn’t going to play in the 11 but but he’ll be

The next man in if they suffer an injury or an illness so I thought that was fair enough just just going back to Stokes I mean do you think Bas Ball’s had many tests do you think this is the biggest test in India and what are the

Challenges you captain in the tour here in 2002 2003 what are the specific and particular challenges for an England Captain here uh the conditions they are so alien to what we play in in England you know if a pitch turns in England immediately you know everyone’s calling for point

Deductions and whatever pitches are allowed to turn you know in the same way that they seem here and they bounce in Australia they turn in India and they’re pretty flat in Pakistan that’s what makes you a a complete crigger is that you go all around the world I always

Look at batters in particular that can get get runs in all conditions and the same with captaincy I look at captains that can win away from home and I thought stokes’s leadership we were there in Pakistan his leadership in Pakistan was about as good as I’ve seen

From a captain any Captain for a very very long time especially an England Captain you know for a while it’s been about the team and the think tank and people off the field and you know the analyst I thought Stokes had a real gut feel for cap captaincy they would not

Have won that series like that if it wasn’t for stokes’s captaincy so I do believe he has that gut feel for captaincy which you need in the subcontinent because conditions change very quickly it goes from being a good pitch to suddenly some one ball will

Turn and you have to react and the other thing about the subcontinent and Swan touched on it um is you’re playing against a nation you’re playing against the whole country you’re playing against some Godlike figures orbe it K’s not there for the first couple of games so

The narrative is built up of here’s 11 normal crigers against the you know the greatest criers that have ever played the game and you could can build them up and you’ve got to realize that they are human the opposition they can fail and if you do your Basics well get your runs

As cook and Peterson did in 2012 your Spinners do what they need to do as panisara and Swan did in that tour um you can compete with them and I believe and it’s not it’s not the basball way so I had a side that we had to stay in the

Game we had to keep the crowd quiet we had when Sachin was batting or sewag was batting R was at the cre dravid we had to silence the crowd and then pounce when the moment came I don’t think that’s the way this side see it they won’t be like that they

Will try and pounce straight away I think with the ball actually Stokes is a bit more defensive and a bit smarter than just all out attack go back to Pakistan he didn’t bow himself because of the injury but the mo and he sat in

Sat in sat in and the moment it start Ed reversing the fields changed completely and he attacked so I think with the ball and in the field he’s quite Savvy that it’s not all out attack there is times just to be a bit defensive but when that

Moment comes um attack so and the key is not getting behind once you get behind and you’re chasing the game um stay on level par first Innings don’t give him a first Innings lead realization that get runs in you get the runs in the first Innings if you’re 50 not out in the

First inning think about how that pitch is going to be on day four if it gets to day four it could it’s going to be so much harder if you’re in get big runs and cash in so there’s still that combination of playing attacking way but I do still

Believe the basics of cricket apply and definitely apply in India yeah those are all onfield challenges that you mentioned and I guess it’s very different now to for for for example when I came in 1993 when the challenges were as much about off the field actually uh as on it even though

On spinning pitches you very quickly become aware of the onfield challenge back then 30 years ago the challenges were around travel uh you know with a air strike and illness going through the team and we didn’t have a doctor on tour and England have brought their own Chef this time

And you know they’ve come to India very late been in AB Abu Dhabi for 10 days and intending to go back there between test two and three so the off field challenges don’t present themselves as much I don’t think but the onfield challenge is as tough if not tougher as

It’s ever been if you look at India’s record in the last 10 years uh 40 tests I think 30 wins three losses seven draws so all England’s players or at least those who’ve spoken have been saying in their view this is the the hardest place

To to come and win so it stands as the biggest challenge so far to basball but I guess um well I mean they haven’t won a test series for a year or so with those draws against New Zealand and Australia but they’ve they’ve jumped most of the hurdles that have come in in

Front of them so far and this is the latest possibly the toughest uh and certainly the most interesting so I’m really looking forward to it as I said I haven’t been to Hyderabad before the ground here actually the The Pavilion reminds me a little bit Mahal Nash you’ll remember that and there’s loads

Of old photos uh in in in the Pavilion here of the greats of the past have we made it or not but uh yeah I’m hoping for a good crowd tomorrow a pitch that gives all uh areas of the game a chance to thrive actually I don’t I don’t think we should

Be shy of criticizing a pitch if it’s a poor one you know people seem reticent to criticize a poor pitch and and reticent to draw the comparison you know in South Africa Rohit said well hope you know I’m not going to criticize this as long as people don’t criticize pitches

In India well we all have an ideal of what a good pitch should be which offers all talents a chance to shine fast Bowlers Spinners batters as well you don’t often get that ideal it’s rare that you do get ideal an ideal surface but you will get on the Spectrum and

That occasionally you’ll get extremes whether it’s like Cape Town where it’s an extreme for the fast Bowlers or some of the pitches we saw here in 2021 uh in armad thead where it was extreme for the Spinners now you have to be able to find a way to cope as a

Player and I agree there’s no point moaning winging making excuses about it uh but I I I think that the extremes should be the Rarity and the norm should be somewhere either side of that ideal and that’s what I’m hoping to see that you know even even the quicker Bowlers

Like bumra and sage and Mark Wood can feel that there’s something in it with either the new ball or old because I think that is really the beauty of test Cricket the only beauty of the five-day game compared to the one- Day game is the time that should allow for for all

Those facets of the game to come to the four so that’s what I’m hoping to see um but we shall see it’s going to be 4 in the morning for you I take it you’ll be you’ll be putting CAU up and getting up breakfast time and and catching up with

The with the first session at least I’ll be there 4:00 M keep your phone on I’ll be texting you about pitches and tosses Etc I’ll be there watching at 4 o’clock you’re you’ve got you’re out kading tonight aren’t you you’re off for a game of kabat about going to a kabat game

I’ve never been to one remember four days when it was unbelievably popular I’ve forgotten the rules completely but I’m told that there’s a big kabat match in town tonight so sorry who’s playing and who are the Star players who should be look no idea

I have no idea but they tell me you know it’s like the biggest audience here after after Cricket um so maybe I’ll if I can get my column on bashier written this afternoon for Thursday’s paper um I’ll go down and watch some kabat tonight and we’re going to chat what

After the first test for this podcast um which which maybe day three or something possibly but whenever it finishes uh we’ll catch up and and and rake over the bones of the first game and see how it’s gone I’m looking forward to to reading you about bashier

Basball kabadi and birani if you don’t have a birani tonight you have let me down hydrabad birani we will catch up at the end of the Test match whenever that might be all right see you then see you