July 28, 2025 • 57 mins
Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler discuss India’s heroic draw against England in the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
They tell us what makes Ben Stokes and Joe Root true greats of the game and the secrets of a good batting partnership.
The duo discuss India captain Shubman Gill’s incredible series, recall playing through injuries and react to your stories of the best spells you’ve ever bowled.
Buy the ‘For The Love of Cricket’ Wine Case by Laithwaites, handpicked by Stuart & Jos: https://www.laithwaites.co.uk/product/X15614
FREE Cold Beer glass when you buy 20 cans of Brewdog Cold Beer - use the CODE: FTLOC at checkout to redeem!
Ask Broady and Jos a question: https://qHarKG.short.gy/askFTLOC
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Indian batters are right to go.
I've worked really hard for the last four hours.
Actually, I'm going to be 100. How good is it to see Stokesy
performing in the way he is He's.
Probably England's best bowler. He's looked great.
He looks knackered now as I twisted to check the LBW.
Bang, rib breaks. I've still got a spell to bowl.
I've got 2 overs in first class cricket.
(00:21):
What was it? Right on off spin with a bit of
a kink. You got a kink, have you?
I'm Stuart Broad, just back fromManchester, where India didn't
just survive, they thrived. They pulled off a fantastic draw
to keep the series alive. And he's Josh Butler, just back
from sunning himself in beautiful Corfu.
(00:42):
How was your holiday, Jose? Yeah, I've been out to Corfu
with the family, which was very special.
Enjoyed that. Was keeping a little bit of an
eye on on the Test match, which obviously was another fantastic
test. But yeah, I've had a a nice week
away which has been very refreshing.
I've got to be honest, if I, if I saw you in an airport, if
you're just a cricket fan, Josh Butler, I've took look at my day
(01:06):
and go hang on a minute. Early July, Yeah.
What's going on late July? Yeah, what you what you
probably. Do in an airport why you're not
on a cricket ground. But that's just the way the the
schedules work now isn't it? Yeah, it's the way the schedules
worked, and it's also the way mysort of careers panned out, to
be honest. So yeah, my last first class
game was my last Test match, which was the the Ashes tour of
(01:26):
2122. So you know, just sort of the
way things have worked out with opportunities etcetera of T20
and yeah, a lot of time away in in the winters now and in the
summer just playing the blast inthe 100 and and obviously the
England one day stuff. So yeah, the calendar presented
a a nice opportunity to go away with the family and have a a
(01:48):
couple of wait a couple of weeksin sunny Corfu.
So yeah, we've we've really enjoyed that.
But yeah, there's certainly a few sort of raised eyebrows in
the airport, sort of, you know, what are you doing here in the
middle of the summer? But you're.
Quite good for a little awkward moments, aren't you?
Did you have anything on on holiday that that caught you by
surprise? Well, a bit of that sort of what
are you doing here and sort of trying to answer that in a nice
(02:10):
way, but I think my favorite moment.
So we went with another couple and their two kids who we were
good friends with in London. We've been out for dinner and
we've just gone for a drink. But it sort of seems that every
sort of person who'd been in England and is on holiday in
Corfu at that time and had gone with all their teenage kids was
(02:30):
in that same place at the same time.
And, and it was sort of a they were calling me like the Pied
Piper as I was walking through. There's obviously a lot of young
cricket fans, which was was nice, but the girls have gone
off and done their thing. And me and Ben, my friend, have
have sat down in the corner justhaving a quiet drink.
And a couple of sort of teenagers came up asking for a
picture. They were very polite, asked
(02:51):
very politely, but a bit nervous.
And so they were sort of fumbling about trying to, you
know, get the camera sorted and take the picture.
And I just sort of said, oh, Benright here.
He's actually my social media manager.
So he's pretty good at taking a picture and you, you, you get
him to take it. So my mate Ben, who has nothing
to do with my social media is absolutely fuming that these
(03:14):
people know him as as my social media manager and he's looking
for a way to get me back. Anyway, while I have been away,
I hear the the pods go into the national press.
It has, you know, all our sort of highbrow comments on high end
cricket and our knowledge from within the game.
In one of the biggest series of all time, England versus India,
we made the Daily Star. One of the big broadsheets.
(03:37):
Star stinks out fellow pundits England cricket star Michael
Atherton is fellow commentators choking on his father.
That's quite. That's quite UN quote I'm.
Reading that from the page. England ex England captain turn
pointed Athens and 57 has dodgy guts.
(04:00):
Oh gosh he's pictured. Athens is pictured just in
capitals gaffs. He found out.
So somehow our producer Rob Reeve had got a picture of the
article and put it on our WhatsApp group so that
(04:21):
everyone's in the commentary boxand, and Arthur's is on
commentary and everyone starts giggling.
Ravi Shastri absolutely loved it.
He's like in tears. And Arthur's on commentary.
He's like what, what's going on?What's going on back there?
And as soon as he came off air, didn't want to disrupt his like
professionalism on air showed him it.
(04:43):
And he was a little, he took in great humour, like smiling.
But you could tell he was a little bit like, oh, cheers,
Yeah, cheers. Great story.
And he just, he just turned to his like, you'll be hearing from
my lawyers. You'll be hearing from my
lawyers. So yeah, I think I haven't heard
from his lawyers. He might.
I might still do. I'm not sure but.
But was he as prolific as prolific as usual in the
(05:03):
convoys? I'm not going there again.
I'm not going there again. But yeah, it was, yeah.
That's our first sort of make ofthe paper.
So we should be Daily Star should be quite proud of that
should be all. Pretty pleased with that,
especially if one of like sports.
Great journalists and great. Was going to say.
He must be delighted to 1. Of the greatest.
(05:24):
Ever sports writers, writing andthe sentence construction,
That'd be right up his alley. The Daily Star.
Atherton Guffs. But yeah, I mean, I suppose we
should talk about the cricket really.
I, I mean, it's another 5 dayer,another, another Test match into
the final session, bit of drama actually in the final hour.
(05:45):
I don't know how much you, you saw of that, but we'll, we'll,
we'll get into that. But there's so much cricket
played in the Test match. I don't want the focus to be on
the slightly faster ending that that occurred, but highlights of
it. England won the toss and bowled
again and you thought, oh, Old Trafford, is that a bit of a
risk dry pitch, you know, get runs on the board and you try
(06:06):
and control the game. But arriving there, I mean, you
know this better than most. You've been in the Lancashire
changing room. Blanks haven't won a game.
They have. It's all been draws.
So even with the extra day of a Test match, 5 instead of four,
you're thinking, you know, this is this is going to be a flat
pitch. It's going to be hard work, hard
work for the bowlers. And we're still this whole
(06:28):
series has been high, high quality batting against bowling
attacks that are learning and, you know, developing.
I think so it was always going to be a bit bit batter friendly,
but the pitch just didn't allow any result to happen.
It it showed signs that it mightdo, but it just didn't.
But highlights Stokesy first five for 8-8 years, 1st 100 for
(06:52):
two years and routine. That's a pretty elite list,
isn't it? The five for 100 in there same
game, I saw a little list of thepeople had to have done it.
Botham's done that five times, which I thought was outrageous.
I mean some of the lists that popped up through that Test
match. Honestly, if you like your
stats, it was. It was just a dream.
Shipman Gill joined a list of Bradman and Gavaskar just for
(07:16):
the amount of hundreds in a series Rudy went past.
Test list to go. Yeah, Rudy went past Jack
Callas, Raul Dravid and Ricky Ponting while Ricky Ponting was
on commentary. I mean, how how awesome's that,
you know, that Ponting have flown in for these final two
Test match of the series. And and just by I want to say by
chance, probably the the bosses at Sky are probably a bit more
(07:39):
switched off than that. But yeah, for, for, for Ricky to
be on comms while Rudy went pasthim and full of grace and full
of charm, as Ricky always is. You know, to me, I think he
believes records are there to bebroken.
And, and next target is, say, target.
I don't think Rudy sees it as that.
But next on the list is the great Sachin Tendulkar.
(08:00):
Greatest, greatest it's ever been.
So yeah, amazing week for Joe Root.
He's not hunting down Sachin Tendulkar because that's
definitely not the way he plays his cricket or how he sees it.
But he's #2 on an incredibly elite list with what you seem
like is quite, you know, if he stays fit, like a quite
attainable kind of thing, Which is absolutely mind blowing,
(08:24):
isn't it, to think. We, we run the numbers on it a
bit because we get, we get a bitof time in the commentary box of
and we've got that much sort of data and, and stats around.
And for him to do it in the 2027Ashes series at home, which you
feel like would be a dream. You know, you, you at home
Australia, he'd have to, you'd have to go like the clappers a
(08:47):
little bit have to get like 120 odd runs or 130 odd runs a Test
match. So average 70.
So he's got to really play for that to happen.
But then England go to India, I think after that series.
And could you imagine Mumbai? Could you imagine taking over?
The game off they wouldn't let it happen they.
Wouldn't let it happen. They'd be, yeah, they wouldn't
(09:08):
be happy. No, it would just be
unbelievable, wouldn't it? But when you think of, I think
so. That's was he got 2100 since
COVID, which is like, yeah, but it's with his life as Nian.
It's awesome to watch. Do you sit there and think,
well, it's a given he's going todo it or is part of you
thinking, well, he's 34 coming on 35, someone, you know, not
(09:33):
many players in their career have had times where they have
never struggled or gone out of form or had injury problems.
He's just always scored runs andalways been in form, always been
fit. Is there any part of you that
thinks, well, he might not get there?
Or are you just like, well, it'sRuthie, he's going to get there?
I'd say I'm sort of like 5050 I think, or maybe a bit more in
his favour. Like, I think I do think there's
(09:56):
a really good chance that he gets hunger.
I don't ever see being an issue with Rooty.
I don't see that he's going to wake up in the next two or three
years and go, do you know what Idon't have the love for, for
batting and for playing for England.
You know, if he's always going to be in the team, like even if
he, you know, they have to be playing terribly, wouldn't he to
(10:16):
drop Joe Root? And obviously if that was going
to happen, he wouldn't get thereanyway.
But I just think he's been playing so well even throughout
that period of England winning one game in 17 when he was
captain and so much pressure andCOVID and all that stuff, He's
no, he's still scored so many runs throughout that period.
So even if he's going through what you'd say is a lean trot,
(10:38):
it's not really, it's not kind of lean trot that I've been
through sort of averaging 15 in a series.
He's, you know, he'll be averaging 3035.
And people are saying Joe Root needs to, you know, pick it back
up again. So he's never sort of never
contributing and never adding tothat tally.
So that's why I feel like he's got a good chance because he's
going to have some series like he's he's had where he plays
(11:00):
fantastically well and then he'salways just chipping away it.
But exactly, he doesn't see it like that at all either, does
he? Which I think is the the great
thing about him. He just loves playing for
England, scoring runs for England and trying to win
matches. But you know, maybe at the end
of his career, which I'm sure hewill, is go, wow, look at this
(11:21):
list I'm in and whether he's #2 or, or whether he actually
scales Everest and gets to #1 it's going to be pretty cool to
watch over the over the next fewyears.
We actually showed Rudy the liston the on the TV of him at #2
and typical Rudy's like, oh, that's pretty cool.
But actually when you look at it, you're like, Oh my, you're
all our heroes, all the people. Like we watched growing up.
(11:43):
He's sort of ahead of apart fromSachin to Dokris.
It's absolutely incredible. Mary in Your Catches asks what
does Joe Root care about more, breaking Sachin's record of the
amount of runs or scoring his first Ashes 100 Down Under?
Well, I would say he wants that Ashes 100 Down Under.
That's probably the only thing he hasn't really ticked off so
(12:06):
far. Breaking Sachin's record.
I feel like it will be. He must be aware of it.
You know, it's impossible to notsort of know about where he is
in in the world game at the moment.
And the fact that we're talking about it, you know, can Joe Root
do it? But genuinely, when you are
around him and when you talk to him and when you're sort of in
his company, it just isn't something that I get the sense
(12:29):
that motivates him. I just think he wants to score
as many runs as he can. He loves batting.
He loves being in the middle. He loves scoring runs.
As in a fantastic clip, I think Ricky Ponting asks him the
question about, you know, what'sbeen the thing that's clicked in
the last few years about scoringall these runs in these
hundreds. And he talks through about going
(12:49):
from sort of being quite technically focused about his
hands and his head and his trigger to sort of playing the
game and how he manages risk andhow he understands what he needs
to do. And I think he says he got in
touch with Sky to send him all his dismissals from certain
phases in his innings. And he's sat down and and sort
of as a fellow professional, listening to that attention to
(13:11):
detail and sort of work that he's done on his own behind the
scenes. And obviously he's getting the
results for it. It's awesome.
So I just think that's his, you know, that's his love and that's
his passion. And, you know, there's only one
test left of this summer now before it all the focus does
move on to on to the Ashes. And, you know, can Joe Root
(13:33):
score 100 in Australia will be one of those things?
And if he does, I think England are going to do well.
I think they've, this is the best chance England have had in
a a very long time going to Australia.
So yeah, I agree with that, yeah, which is cool.
But yeah, the Test match, back to the Test match that's just
happened. We've mentioned Stokes earlier,
5 for 100 and another player of the match performance.
(13:57):
You know, just how good is it tosee Stokes he performing in the
way he is? It's good, you know, he's, he's
probably England's best bowler at the moment.
I've got no doubts about that. He's moving the ball the most.
He's able to run in. He's got a brace front leg,
which he's not been able to havewith a sore knee for the last
few years. He's he's looked great.
He looks knackered now, if I'm honest, you know, he's got a
(14:20):
sore Peck or shoulder or tricep or bicep is hobbling around a
little bit. He's getting cramped in his
hamstrings, in his calves, everything.
You know, it's just the workloadthat he's, he's sort of gone
from nothing, barely played any cricket and then gone into four
Test matches like this. The the most physically
challenge, challenging Test matches you could ever wish to
(14:41):
play. So he, he, he looks out on his
feet at the moment with back-to-back Test matches now
Oval starting Thursday. It's a huge effort for him.
You know, it's, it's incredible.One thing I was how tired I
would get as a bowler, he would have to bat.
He asked about #6 and go out andscore 100 and face 250 balls or
so. I just can't imagine the level
(15:04):
of physicality that he is havingto, to, to put through.
And yes, he looks incredibly fitand lean, but you can see how
tired he is with all the, you know, emotion of, of leading as
well. But you know, he's not a
personal milestones man. You know, he doesn't really care
about hundreds and and fifers, but there was just a bit more of
(15:25):
a oomph in his in his first pumpwhen he got that 102 years is
relatively long time for a top six batter to not get 100 in
Test match cricket with the amount of Test match cricket
England play. And he he looked like he really
wanted like like really felt like he it was a bit of weight
off his shoulders. I think.
(15:45):
So he he was, he'd win 3. Of course, we know him.
He would want that in a, in a winning course.
He's hundreds and fifers in in adrawn or lost Test match.
The best players in the world, they don't mean anything to
them, do they? But no, yeah, Stokes, he's been
been awesome. The bowlers are just sometimes
(16:05):
you're really happy to be retired as a bowler.
And these pitches and this batting unit and just what's
happened to the bowlers, the amount of overs had to bowl and
and how breakthroughs have just been so difficult to come by.
Normally you get 660 odd and geta lead of 300, have them nought
for two and that's game done. That is game over.
(16:26):
And India just shows outrageous mental fortitude, strength,
determination, focus to then gosh, I sort of lost count
there. Was it like 430 for four or
something? And there's actually, I don't
know how much you saw of it, butJadeja is on 89 not out.
Washington Sundar never scored aTest match, 100 is on 75 not
(16:51):
out, I think. And the drinks break comes.
So what happens in Test match cricket?
If you get to the final hour, whatever comes last 15 overs or
5:00 PM, the final hour starts and then you play.
And we've not had to talk about this for so long because there's
been no draws under, under Ben Stokes.
But you can either shake hands, go to the opposition captain
(17:11):
normally or or batters and say let's shake hands and walk off
because there's not going to be a result.
Or you carry on and and try and force a result or try and play
cricket so that final hour arrives.
Draw is 99% the result. Nothing else can really happen.
But you do have the unique scenario that you've got 2
(17:32):
batters approaching hundreds. And Stokes, he took his cap off
and put his hand out to shake hands with Judeja and Judeja
went, no, I'm not going to shakeyour hand.
And where there's been a big upset, big, you know their
England are wrong, India on whatever.
(17:54):
There's certain instances where both teams can be right.
You know, Stokes is right to take his cap off and off with a
handshake. He's right.
His team have fielded 143 overs.They're knackered, they're
exhausted, they want to get off the field.
There's no result can happen. Also, the Indian batters are
right to go. I've worked really hard for the
last four hours. Actually.
I'm going to get 100, so there'snot there.
(18:16):
Doesn't. Is that exactly how you'd have
seen it if you were on the field?
I can imagine. That, no, I'd have been wanting
to get off. Broad Petulance.
I'd have been, I reckoned, well,I mean Stokes he then there was
a bit of verbals. You know, there was there was
some what's the right sort of frustrated comments from from
the England fielders, naturally.And then the Harry Brooke came
(18:39):
on to bowl and bowled absolute filthy, bowled off spin it.
It was a bit of an embarrassing moment because we put the little
ticker up at the bottom of HarryBrooke on to bowl one.
Test match wicket. Paul Kane Williamson caught down
the lakeside in Wellington, right arm, medium pace and he
ran up and bowled off spin. I didn't know bowled off spin
how I could actually look like apoor man's Dan Lawrence action.
(19:02):
So that's like sort of shows where the action was.
And he just bowled like down theleg side trying to almost get
the game done if they're going to get their hundreds.
So the standard completely disappeared and and I think
Washington Sundar blocked 1. So Stokes brought everyone in
within 10 yards just to say hit the runs, get us off this field.
(19:23):
So yeah, I could imagine myself being on the side of taking my
boots off, wanting to give the feet a rest.
Maybe I'd say to, I'd have said to Stokesy, Stokesy I'll go
field fine leg and I'd have thatfine leg would have been by the
changing rooms. So when I'm imagining you sort
of probably boots off, tucked, actually probably you've just
(19:45):
lobbed your boots off the field and you're you're stood in your
socks underneath the Indian dressing room just berating
them. Just yeah, we're ready to share
your hands. Should we just go off then?
And the game. Had his Joff Red is jumping tied
around his waist, Joffred his jumper just tied around his
waist like he was going to the polo or something, you know,
just stood there. But you know, I, I, I, I think
(20:08):
Indian, the Indian batters were right to go and get, you know, I
know, I know Stokes, his whole mindset and his whole team's
mindset is nothing about personal milestones if the game
can't be won. Get off the field.
That's how they saw it. And that's absolutely fine.
And they're allowed to be frustrated and India are allowed
to frustrate them. By the way, India were holding
their rights to bat for another hour, which I think I really
(20:30):
lost the plot because I'd have lost, missed my last train home.
Yeah, if I was on the field, I'dhave been frustrated.
I'd been grumpy, I'd have had a moment.
But Washington Sundar came over and into we interviewed him and
he was a bit emotional and he said this is for my family.
This is, you know what special moment, first Test match 100.
(20:50):
And I was like, damn right, you know, the Test match hundreds
are bloody hard to get. And he deserved it.
And actually he didn't get his Test match 100 in that last 15
minutes, did it in the four hours before where he saved the
game for India. The beauty of you just sort of
sat on the fence trying to say that both teams were in the
right instead of piling into to the batters when.
(21:13):
For the bottle, Liam Dawson batting 89 not out, 75 not out.
What's the play? I'm sort of saying even if you
shook hands at that point, the value of that innings is, is
there for all to see whether it's 7589 or 103.
I don't think the value of that changes, but it's actually where
(21:37):
we're all sort of cricket is. You know, we say I went up for
the milestones and there's some of that.
But yeah, there is a big elementto that.
And let's say Washington Sundar have been never scored a a Test
match century is, let's say wellwithin his rights to say I want
it to be a Test match century inthis battling course.
So I kind of see that, but I don't think whether they shook
(21:59):
hands at that point and we didn't see the the farcical
ending. The value of those innings from
those two players is is immense to their team, so I think.
You know how much we love all good handshakes?
You know, it's like one of our favourite has been for 15 years.
Like anytime we see one on the Internet, bang straight and send
it to honestly. The England players were left
hanging left, right and centre. They were all caps off.
(22:22):
Hands everywhere. Who in Judeja hit Harry Brooke
for six? Brookie again, trying to shake
his hand. No handshake it was.
I want the I want a carousel on our Instagram page of All
England play, you know? You All England players just.
Trying to get a hand yeah just Stokes then to Brooke, then to
but I can imagine I can see the frustrations from both sides and
(22:44):
like you said, it won't take away from from the Test match
what what amazing performances and it just adds another layer
to this series. You know, there's been 4 amazing
games and. One to go.
And one to go. That's it for Part 1.
Coming up, we're going to talk about batting partnerships and
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Jose. This Test series has seen some
outrageous batting partnerships.Really.
You know Duckett, Crawley for example, Cairo, Rahul, Gale,
(24:12):
Washington, Sundar and Jadeja. What makes a good batting
partnership? I.
Think there's a sort of chemistry between two players
and two people that ultimately as an individual and as a
batter, you want to feel comfortable.
You want to feel happy and confident at the crease.
And there are certain players who can be stood at the other
(24:34):
end that you know, you can't putthis down on paper why it is,
but the, the sort of understanding or even friendship
you might have off the field translates really well on the
field. And you can get stuck in in the
middle and there's little conversations that you have
between balls or at the end of the overs and someone who
(24:54):
understands you really well and might be someone you actually
enjoy training with. It might be something technical
or remember what you said, you know, at the start of the day
you were going to be, you know, really try and be positive
against any width. And I think that's been one of
the great things about Crawley and, and Duckett, two players
who play very differently. So imagine as a bowler must be a
(25:15):
bit of a headache when, you know, Duckett taps one out to
deep point and they swap ends and you you go from a short
left-hander to an incredibly tall right-hander.
And they both have incredibly different games and different
strengths, different weaknesses,different scoring areas.
So I think that allows them to be as one part of their
(25:35):
partnership, which is incrediblyeffective.
The numbers that they're puttingup.
I know someone like Zach's been under pressure at times for his
overall record, but his contributions in match winning
causes are great. And that partnership with Ben
Duckett is obviously working. You know, the they as a
partnership average 45 had an incredible lick as well.
(25:58):
So when you're talking about selection or so that is a the
dream. You know, those two guys, you're
not looking at them as individuals, you're sort of
piercing them together and putting them out there and go,
this is what we're going to get as the collective.
Those two as a partnership are are doing that fantastically
well. I think of Gil and KL Rahul,
probably 2 quite calm charactersin the middle.
You know, I'm sure they'd be very gutsy and committed and
(26:21):
feisty in their own way, but sort of, you know, with class
and elegance and composure. So I imagine they're a a really
nice fit together and Sundar andJadeja 2 sort of gritty
characters. Actually, I think quite seeing
that side of Washington, which, you know, maybe some of the fans
and stuff in the England team haven't seen him loads.
(26:41):
You know, obviously his commentsat Lords and to be fair to him,
you know, he'd have got a good bit of stick out there I'm sure.
And he's toughed it out and played a great knock for his
side. And so the two of them, Julija's
been batting brilliantly. You know, he's been a real thorn
in the side for England throughout the series.
But there's just something aboutsomeone and there's a feeling.
(27:01):
I used to have it with Owen Morgan actually.
I just really enjoyed batting with him.
We've had a really nice understanding with each other.
Left hand, right hand, saw the game pretty similarly.
By the end they'd played a lot of cricket together so you sort
of just knew what each other were going to do without having
to really talk about it. It's a big part of selection, I
think. All credit to Stokes, McCullum,
(27:23):
Rob Key, those guys who it's notas simple as just looking at the
numbers and putting them out there.
It's how do you fit everyone together, what, what roles do
they play within that as well, whether it's the more aggressive
role in a partnership, the guy who occupies the crease, how
they rotate, strike well. That's something England did
really, really well and you havethat understanding of running
(27:45):
between the wickets as a partnership.
Ollie Pope and Joe Root did thatbrilliantly.
I'm sure Rudy saying how much cramp he had by running with
Poppy, but it's it's a big part of the game.
Imagine as a bowler, Duckett andCrawley must be as polar
opposites as you could bowl that.
Yeah, offer completely differentthings.
Then they obviously the left right hand, different heights,
(28:06):
hit the balls in completely different places that you know,
the Crawley stride he'll get in where he meets the ball is
completely different to to duck it.
The the length you got a ball to, to get Ben Duckett driving
is obviously different to Crawley.
Actually, another partnership I probably would like to add that
we've seen a lot of this summer is the Shubman Gill, Rishabh
(28:28):
Pant, who are great friends. But that shows an amazing
quality when you have a player like a Rishabh Pant who just
goes, you know, does his own thing, almost plays by numbers.
You know, he'll sweep one, he'llhit one straight, then block
seven in a row. Gil plays a huge role in just
letting him do his thing and notletting himself get affected.
There'll be club cricketers listening to this, wondering
(28:50):
about partnerships that they play with on a Saturday or a
Thursday night and knowing what I mean when someone else is
going at the other end and hitting boundaries.
Very hard to control your own brain, isn't it, And go play my
way, do what I'm doing. And Gil is an absolute artist at
it. So.
So Pan will be charging down andwhacking 1 into the crowd for
six and Gale just goes one, cheers and keeps going on his on
(29:13):
his merry way. And that's there's definitely an
art in in that as well, isn't it?
Absolutely. I just as soon as you said that
it just made me think of Roy andBairstow for England at the top
of the order in whiteboard stuff.
They 2 incredibly dominating powerful batters, but they
created a great partnership and that understanding at times,
they just gave up on their ego. So if Johnny was off to a flyer
(29:37):
and was smacking it everywhere, Jay Roy instead of going let's
go shot for shot and I want to catch up with Johnny and, you
know, show I'm I'm just as destructive, would actually tuck
in behind him and say, you know what, today's your day and I'm
going to play my way. Which was still striking pretty
healthy and hitting the boundaries, but he wouldn't try
(29:59):
and compete with him and try andsort of, you know, go side by
side and lack of ego I think is one of those things and just
sort of going. You know, my role at this time
in this partnership is to play this role and when you've.
Got that. How honest would you
understanding how honest in thatpartnership would you go J Roy
or morgues? Come on, man, like move your
feet. What are you doing or why are
(30:20):
you playing that show or, or or are you just going?
I've got to build them up, make them feel positive, make them
feel like motivated and and happy.
I think that comes down to the relationship you have with that
person is and it's different foreach person.
So I think there'd be some players I could say, hey, come
on, you're better than that. But the other guys where you
might want to do it in a different way and they play a
(30:40):
shot that you think looks a bit risky and you go, you might try
and say, Hey, don't forget you're so strong through this
area. Like that could be a good option
against this bowler. So you're trying to direct them
away from maybe what they were doing in a in a different way.
But there's certainly some guys you could just be so honest with
and say, you know, sort of you're not disagreeing with each
other, be of yeah, hey, come on,pull yourself together.
(31:03):
You're better than this or you're better than that.
And the whole McCullum era, theytalk about it a lot about
spending time with each other, not just at cricket.
Get to know you, your players away from the game, get to know
what they like to do, how they like to be spoken to, what
things they're into. Because sometimes in a
partnership you're out there foran incredibly long time and you
(31:23):
actually start talking about stuff, nothing to do with
cricket in the middle of overs or what you've seen in the crowd
and sort of have a bit of a jokeand a laugh about something like
that. So, but that friendship and
actually it's something I look at this England team at the
moment, they've got a lot of guys in that side who've now
played a lot of cricket together.
There's a nice number of Test matches behind each individual.
(31:45):
They're all really good friends.They obviously enjoy each
other's company. They're all incredibly, some
really settled top quality international cricketers within
that. So I just think they're coming
into this perfect kind of zone which we had in the white ball
stuff. It probably took, you know, two
years from that 2015 to 2019 andaround about 2017.
(32:07):
Now you're getting into that. Everyone just knows their role,
they know everyone just fits into place.
It's like a jigsaw coming together and that Test side just
looks exactly like that to me now, which I think is really,
really exciting, especially withobviously what's to come so.
Yeah, particularly the batting group.
Particularly the batting group. But you know, actually there was
(32:27):
an incident that Richard punt got hit on the foot, quite nasty
wokes. He bought him like a slow ball
Yorker. He tried to reverse sweep him.
Traditional Test match shot to get yeah.
Proper Test match cricket slow ball Yorker reverse sweep caught
him on the outside of the boot, which I'm not actually don't
really see people get hit there,really get hit on the toe or the
top of the boot. It hit him right on the outside
and this balloon came onto the side of his foot.
(32:50):
Hobbly looked in absolute agony,to be fair, got a golf cart,
sort of a golf cart ambulance onto the field.
Off he went. And you know, rumors were
fracture or broken foot or somebody did heroically come out
and bat. And it brought up this huge
debate about substitutions in cricket.
And I want to put your brain on that actually.
So Captain Stokes was asked about it at the end of the game
(33:12):
and in typical, he sort of sat on the fence.
He went absolutely ridiculous. Such a move would create too
many loopholes. Pick your 11 for a game and
injuries a part of the game. I completely understand the
concussion replacement because that is player welfare and
safety I think. Honestly I think the
conversation should stop around injury replacements.
If you stick me in an MRI scanner I could get in another
(33:34):
player straight away. So he obviously thinks no to
injury replacements. What are what are your thoughts
on it? I think it's fair argument for
when you put it like that, therecould be, you know, a way to
take advantage of it. You know, that's obviously
extreme. I think, you know, is there a
way that you could police it better to still allow, you know,
(33:55):
a genuine 11 V 11 contest? Obviously India are are Hanford
by that with Richard Pant's injury, you know, he bravely
came out to bat again, didn't he?
Which was? Incredible.
Incredible. But he kind of you're getting a
sub in some ways because they'vegot an injury replacement to
then keep wicket, haven't they? So it's not like he has to go
(34:15):
out there and keep on one foot or they had to get, I suppose KL
rule could have done it luckily for for them.
But I don't know what's an extreme idea.
You you get 3 substitutes throughout a Test match and you
could use them at your discretion, whether that's for
an injury or whether that's for a change of tactics.
(34:36):
You know, for example, you name a squad of 14, you know, on day
five you might bring in another spinner for a SEMA and you use
that for injuries as well. And that's quite, I'm just
thinking off the top of my head,it was quite a outlandish.
I mean, that would keep the quality of the game high,
wouldn't it? Because you, you you, you're
able to adapt players to to different.
And you just say within that if an injury happens, you've you've
(34:59):
got those Subs there. But I don't know what do you
think? Have you had times where you
think? This should change.
I'm a bit with you. I, I, I think the art of being a
captain or a coach slightly is in selection.
So you're picking players that you think, yes, can do the job
on the surface and the pitch, but also that are fit enough to,
to get through five days Test match cricket and, and deliver
(35:21):
over that, that period of time. So I would probably, I wouldn't
like to see players get injured like with a side strain that
sometimes take two or three daysto, to show on a scanner because
of the, the inflammation. So very hard to prove.
I think that would be difficult to to replace if I walked off
with a back spasm. Again, quite difficult to prove
if I can bowl, if I can't, a fracture or broken finger,
(35:45):
broken foot, broken arm, quite easy to prove that that that's
happened in the game and and you're injured.
So I think I could, I would be quite happy to lean on the side
that if you're batting, you get a bouncer, hits you on the
forearm, breaks your forearm, then you can be replaced by a
batter. But I think you'd also have to
(36:06):
probably name the whole 11, namea replacement or what
replacement would come in for each individual player.
Because of what? You don't want to get into the
situation like you had in AT20 where I can't remember exactly
what happened, but I think duvetwhack, big left-hander whacks it
and maybe bowls medium pace or spin.
(36:26):
Medium pace. Got a concussion replacement and
I think was it Hashit Rana came in about 95 mile an hour and got
4 foot or something, you know, not, not like for like.
So I think there's there's definitely teams will always
look to find little loopholes orexpose expose rules and and make
them better for their team. So I think you'd have to be very
(36:48):
strict on on what you're lookingto do and I can't be I've got to
be honest, I can't remember. Yes, I've played through pain
and I've played through particularly getting bounced.
It hit me in the jaw or the backand it bruises up and you've got
to ball through a bruise. I got injured at Adelaide once
where I tore my AB 4 centimeter,tore through it, tear through it
felt like I was sort of put a knife through it.
(37:10):
No chance of of playing on. I'm out of the game so I've
can't remember sort of getting abroken hand or something that
was so badly injured, but I had to carry on.
I've either gone, I'm completelyout of this game or I'm fine.
I can do the job. Yeah, I had that actually in my
my last Test match in the in Sydney, one from Mark Wood kept
(37:33):
low I think on the 1st or must have been the first day.
Now I've closed my hands too early.
It's hit the back of my left hand and was sore straight away.
But it's sort of like, you know,as as a wicketkeeper you do get
knocks and it is sore. So I tried to carry on, but
every time I caught the ball waslike, this actually does really
hurt. So went off talk, talked to the
(37:55):
physio about it. Ollie Pope took the gloves
actually. And then we nipped around the
corner for an X-ray and had a crack or a break in in my index
finger on my left hand. So yeah.
And the similar sort of situation is so Ollie Pope could
keep wicket throughout the Test.And we had a subfielder and then
(38:16):
have you heard it like a ring block, this injection.
So when it came to us batting, I'm batting #7 it must be, I
think Stokes and Johnny are batting and they're actually
putting on together a good partnership.
So there's a timing of like the ring block lasts 2 hours or
something about where and then when it would wear off and you'd
have to have enough. So I ended up having two because
(38:37):
they'd actually put together a good part.
It's horrible. You know, I didn't say I've got
the biggest pain threshold actually anyway, so I'm not
trying to say oh, I was the toughest guy in the room.
But so I've had another one of these injections gone out to bat
with a numb left hand basically and tamely chipped 1 to cover I
think 5th or 6th ball out for a duck and just sort of walking up
(38:59):
below. What was the point in that
getting that And then had to have the again the same thing
for the second innings, but luckily managed to get off the
mark so I didn't bag him. Didn't bag him with a broken
digit, which was just. Was good, but yeah, I just
thought, I think. I've just thought of one that I
had at the Oval. I think it must have been, well,
(39:19):
Boomer was playing so Boomer maybe 2018.
So Boomer bounced me and I had all my protective equipment on
like an ice hockey goalkeeper, but it's managed to hit the bit
in my ribs that wasn't protected.
So like, you know, when it hits you in the ribs immediately
like, oh, like wins you saw. I was like OW played on a little
bit and got off that night out and I was sore, but there's no
(39:44):
bruise. So normally it comes up like,
you know, huge like purple bruise or something where the
cricket balls hit you. So I'm looking nothing there.
But it's really sore when I'm breathing and like moving and
got back the next day. Again, no bruise.
But and when you've got no bruise, you can't really go cool
lads. Look at that Boomer hit me
there. It hurts.
But I couldn't really move very well.
(40:05):
So I was in the physio room and I've still got a bowl.
Another innings and I was in thephysio room, like watching out
the little gap to the to the pitch.
And there's a big appeal on one of our batters.
So I turned really quickly to look at the TV to see if I could
see it live. And I heard my rib crack as I
twisted. It went and I was fortunate
(40:27):
doctors, I went, oh, doc, I think I've just broke my rib and
I'm holding it like pinching it.And he sort of, he heard it as
well. He heard the crap, so he comes
and goes. Yeah, yeah, you've just bust
your rib. So he's obviously broken my rib
with the ball, but it was still lodged in place.
And as I twisted to check the LBW, bang, rib breaks.
(40:48):
I've still got a spell to bowl. And I remember I ran into Chica
Dawan, first of all, like, absolute agony bowling, absolute
agony again. I think I had one of those, you
know, whether it was sort of cream or whatever to try and
numb the pain, but every single ball was was disgusting.
Unfortunately, Jimmy bowled really nicely.
It was when Adele Rashid bowed aJaffa to care Rahul round the
(41:11):
wicked. Yeah.
So I think that might have been 2018. 2018, yeah.
Absolutely, and I barely played a part that second innings
because every time I just tried to hold up an end.
Yeah, real pain. But fortunately the the lads got
it done. I've just thought of actually
one really funny as the Roses game, Liam Livingstone's captain
(41:31):
of lengths at the time and fielding in what it must be
this. He must have batted in the first
innings and then third innings, the game he's broke his thumb,
broken left thumb and we're chasing down this score.
We're still I think, man, no, hemust be 70 or 80 short at this
stage. 8 down. Livy's there.
(41:52):
He's got his thumb now in a cast, come back to watch like
the last day and he's like gone and got his whites on and you're
thinking you still need 80, You can't hold a bat.
And he's got his whites on, he'sgot his cast.
And you know those oboe wicket keeping.
Yeah, yeah. So he's now got one of these
across his arm like a shield. And it got to I think.
(42:14):
So Jimmy's had to go up to #10 obviously because Livi can't bat
at this stage. There's still need 50 to win.
The Yorkshire lads I think aboutto shake hands, think, you know,
we've just taken the last wicketdone.
Livvy starts walking out with this OBO shield and like his bat
in one hand as if he's going to some sort of Braveheart battle.
(42:36):
And then Jimmy got out of the next ball.
He didn't even face the ball, didn't even face absolute goal.
But yeah, they were sort of couple of stories of people
playing with injuries, which I think, you know, we saw Stokes's
comments about. You just do whatever it takes.
There's plenty of guys in Test cricket who are cracking on with
a few injuries. OK, still loads to talk about,
(42:57):
including The Oval, Shubman Gill, and Joss's filthy offspin
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(44:05):
So, Brody, we've had four Tests that have lasted the distance,
five day matches, bowlers who have bowled a lot of overs, that
Oval, the last Test of the summer, dragging their weary
bodies there. What does that feel like?
Where do you summon up the energy for for one more game in
a massive finish? Hi Test match cricket, you know
the series on the line still England 21-UP.
(44:28):
You find the energy you. What I would be doing is not
really training leading into thegame.
I'd maybe go the day before, getmy kit in the changing room, do
a few laps around the ground, doa bit of visualization.
But at this stage in a series, you know what you're doing, your
run UPS fine. It's all about getting rest and
recovery to to make sure you canfire up again in the next game.
(44:51):
So yeah, sort of calm down in training, just get mentally
right and ready to go. But yeah, I think the Oval
brings sort of great emotions, really.
It's it's quite always been known as the final Test, I
suppose, hasn't it? It's always that advertisement
around the ground and you arrivethere such a special place to to
play. And I think it's special to a
(45:13):
lot of players because it has been the final Test of summers.
It has been the final Test of series.
So you remember great experiences of winning series or
holding out for for a series. The crowd are always sort of on
the edge of their seat because every ball matters because the
the series might be on the line,etcetera.
So it's always holds holds a lotof special memories for players.
(45:34):
So always feels a really beautiful place to turn up and
you know, as a player, the the changing rooms, particularly now
the, the pavilion, it's just done beautifully.
So it's just a, it's such a wonderful place to turn up and
and finish the the Test match summer.
And you know, and we've been blessed.
We have been blessed as cricket fans this summer in four Test
(45:55):
matches against India with with exactly we what what we wanted
to see a really hard fought series, superstars from the
world game doing what what they do and entertaining us all.
And I think the Oval will. I think the Oval will be another
absolute cracker. Yeah.
How do you find it turning up tothe Oval Office?
It must be about two years to the day, probably when you had
(46:16):
your final day in Test cricket. What's it like going back to the
venue? And on your other, you know,
what are, I suppose that day must be your sort of, you know,
fondest memory and thinking backto what it's like to finish a
series at that ground. Yeah, I love the place.
Yeah. Brilliant memories from
finishing. Yeah, two years.
I think it was the 31st of July 2023.
So, yeah, this week, two years ago, just, I mean, firstly,
(46:41):
where's that time gone? Absolutely crazy to me that
that's, that's two years since I've bowled a ball in, in
cricket. And yeah, I can walk into the
over certain grounds around the world.
Trent Bridge, Lords, The Oval are them where it doesn't have
to be anyone in the seats, you don't have to have anyone in the
ground. It's still got an aura about it.
(47:01):
Still got a feeling that makes you feel very happy.
And, and the Oval's definitely one one of those.
I love going out to the middle in the mornings as a
commentator. Obviously on the different side
of the ground now, used to be change room, now press box.
But love going out to the middle, having a having a look
at the pitch, the surface, getting a feel for, for what the
crowd is, is going to do. And yeah, it's a whole great
(47:24):
memories of of the Oval and thatparticularly that retirement day
and taking my last wicket there,hitting a six there, but not
part, not one bit of me as though I want to be out there
again. It's I feel very.
Concerned there's some tired bowlers, they probably need to
rotate the bowling attack a bit.You could take your boots along
this week and I. Don't think I've got any boots,
(47:46):
you know, honestly I don't thinkI've got any boots.
I've kept my bat that I hit a six with, I've kept the ball
that I got the last wicket with and I don't have any.
Rotated them so much then you just who knows which year.
Last pitch, probably. Well, yeah, a bit of that as
well. Kept the shirt somewhere as
well. But yeah, it's we were taking
the Mick out of DK Dennis Kartikactually in the in the
(48:07):
commentary box when Pam got injured and say, what do you
reckon DK? Was he 40 maybe?
Do you reckon next test, get yourself in out the out the coms
box, get your whites on and awayyou go.
And he sort of had a cheeky smile, as if to say I could
still do it, I could still have a cry.
Definitely well 1I player is probably looking forward to the
Oval and is Shubman Gill. He's obviously played great
(48:29):
throughout the series. I think he scored 722 runs
already in the series. 4 centuries.
Could become the first captain to ever score 5 in a series if
he managed to and it seems a long shot but is to what's from
Housman Maths Bradman 974. He'd have to have a pretty good
game to to get up there, but of course he's had a great series,
(48:52):
hasn't he? Incredible.
You sort of, I mean, they can't win the series India, but you
sort of feel like he deserves toin a sense, his first series as
captain to have got 100 in his first innings at Headingley,
then a big double and A and A and another 100 at edge Baston.
And, and I think actually, I'm going to go as far as saying, I
thought Old Trafford was probably as his best knock
(49:14):
coming out at none for two on a hat trick and just dousing the
fires, keeping everything calm. And, and the respect he will
have grown the respects he wouldhave gained in the changing room
from doing what he did at Old Trafford.
He's been, he's been spectacular, to be, to be fair
to him. And that's why this series has
been so interesting to to watch because honestly, I heard a lot
(49:37):
of Indian fans say, and maybe Ravi Shastri said India could be
3 nil up. I don't know.
They haven't won the real key moments.
And we know Test match cricket is about that.
Yes, they've got the highest runscores in the series, maybe have
the highest wicket, but it's allabout winning the key moments.
And England have managed to do that.
I think India have won more daysin the Test match for sure.
(50:00):
But England in their own conditions are phenomenal at
finding those little moments that just shift a Test match.
And and that is the crucial partof winning Test match cricket.
So I don't think India deserve to be 3 nil up.
They could have been three nil up if they'd have just, you
know, just won. Those little hours were the most
crucial in Test match cricket. But they'll they'll be coming to
(50:21):
the Oval with with a chance to draw the series and there'll be
no one in world cricket if they do get the win at the Oval and
draw the series, who could go? They don't deserve to draw the
series. You know, I think it's been one
of those series that that that adraw.
It sounds ridiculous if only Americans are listening, that
when you say draw would be a fair result after six weeks of
(50:42):
of graft. But it does feel like a the
series doesn't deserve a draw, but India does.
It deserves something out of it.Yeah, and I think on on Shipman,
I think you go back to, you know, our first pod was one of
the you know, you just been mentioned just been named sorry
as as captain of India. And obviously everyone knew what
(51:02):
a sort of superstar and coming man he was.
But now, five weeks down the line to think of, you know, the
place he's put himself as a player and captain from from
what he's done is I don't know if anyone could have foreseen
it. You know, I think everyone
probably knew he's a top, top class player with huge
potential, even know how good hewas already.
(51:24):
But to go and do what he's done in his first series as captain,
obviously his side A21 down, which I'm sure he'll be
disappointed about when you, like you mentioned they've
played a lot of the cricket and you know, if they'd just found a
way in those key moments to beena bit better, it could be two
one the other way is probably how I'd see it.
But. Have you dropped while he's been
(51:45):
over? A couple of times to sort of
begrudgingly say well played, good.
Blue ticks or did he get back toyou?
No, he does reply. He does reply, which is nice.
So that's, you know, yeah, otherwise I don't think I'd send
him another message. But anyway, that's let's wrap
that up. We've had a few good reactions,
haven't we? So some listener questions.
Jose, we've had loads of reactions to last week's episode
(52:08):
about my best bowling spells. Actually a lot of my mates
texted me going, Oh yeah, episodes, me, me, me, me, all
about me. So I've tried to ignore those,
but I did blue tick those. The listeners have been telling
us the best spells they've seen live.
They have. Richard on Spotify has told us
that his pal Gareth Davies once took 10 for 11 off 12 overs.
That's what, 10 for 11 off 12 overs in the North Wales Cricket
(52:33):
League. Getting the 10th wicket on his
final ball with a questionable LBW apparently deserves it.
Deserves it. Deserves A questionable LBW,
whoever's given it. Family member, friend, just
opposition. Opposition member of triggered
deserves it. To get a 10 for that's that's
pretty incredible. Great.
(52:54):
I don't want a scorecard. Yeah, I now want to know more
about the spell. Was it spinning?
Was it seam bowler? Good catches, no space for a run
out. Richard, get back on to us.
More detail please anyway. And also Robert Cusack has wrote
in to say he took 5 for 12, including a hat trick in the T20
(53:15):
once and still managed to lose the game.
Batter's fault, batter's fault you can't do.
You've done your job as a bowlerthere, haven't you?
5 for 12 with a hat trick. Well, unless the other bowlers
have had a real stinker, I suppose.
Well, he's done his job. He's done his job.
Robert's done his job. Pretty gutted to lose the game
in that situation. So yeah, Robert well bowled
(53:37):
Gareth well bold. Yeah, one of the YouTube
subscribers has said they're playing a friendly against our
local rivals who turned up a fewplayers short.
We've all been there and we drewstraws to see who'd play and
help them out. The straws of justice decided
they ended up with one of our junior wicket keepers who ended
up bowling and taking 6 for six for three and also caught our
(53:59):
best batter out. So you you've given them your
junior keeper, he's had a rock'n'roll, got 6 for three and
taking the belt in catch. So who's who's trying to tell
him he's a Wicker keeper? Yeah, absolutely waste.
I sort of in my mind there, I almost want him to start
keeping, taking the keeping padsoff, give me the ball.
(54:21):
I know how to get these boys out.
He's got a weakness straight. I'll nip it back through the
gate and just Bang, Bang, bang. I sort of hoped that he'd be
opening the bowling for the 1st 11 on the the following.
Week pretty good selection, wouldn't it?
Midweek to say we should probably let the let the
youngster loose with the ball. So yeah, brilliant, brilliant to
hear. Thanks so much for everyone
getting. Have you ever had?
(54:41):
Have you ever had a bowl, Jose? I've bowled 2 overs in first
class cricket. What was?
It right arm off spin with a bitof a kink.
All right, you got a kink, have you?
Yeah, it was a bit of the farcical kind of ending of the
Test match, Somerset V Surrey ona flat one at Taunton.
So we were trying to set up somedeclaration bowling, but I think
(55:04):
I was even, I wasn't even considered for declaration
bowling. I think it's once Surrey decided
that the declaration wasn't going to get to a point they
needed it to. I was then summoned to bowl even
after that to just get us to thefinal hour.
So not pretty. And not effective.
Not effective and won't ever be seen again.
(55:24):
You've also been responding to our fast bowlers, 11 from last
week, and this is pretty fair. Lots of people have been
shouting up for Alex Tudor who once scored 99 not out as night
Watchmen. Maybe we missed the trick there
broadly. Yeah, I think we did.
I think we did. Yeah.
He was a good player. He batted, did he bat #3?
I remember. Didn't Graham Thorpe back the
(55:46):
winning runs or or or or whackedA4 off the final ball of one
over to mean that Alex you need to hit a six to make his hundred
but they only needed like 3 to win or something and he hit a
four to go to 99. No way.
I kind of feel like I can see him with the old scoreboard with
the 99 like held up. I feel like 99, what I've been
(56:07):
like 12. I feel like he went for a pull
shot, like a big pull shot to run at a six and top edged it
over the keeper for four. If that's correct, that's great
knowledge. Do you know what?
What's going to happen now? We'll put that on our socials
and it'll just be like a drill through the covers and it'll be
completely made out, won't. It just knock to one, forget to
99 to win the game. But yeah, fair enough.
(56:29):
We missed him out. You're back at you know, we'll
have to drop someone, but we'll pick choose.
Well done. Who we're dropping, I can't
remember who we had. Drop me.
Get rid of me. I don't like batting.
The nighthawk gone. The Nighthawk no more.
No more, right Jose? That's all we've got time for
today. But remember, you can still
listen to those episodes on yourfavorite podcast app or watch
(56:51):
them on YouTube or Spotify. And keep your thoughts coming
in, use the comments section or the form in our episode
description. And that's it for this week,
Jose. We're back again after The Oval
to reflect on just the most incredible series between
England and India. Thanks to our sponsors Sage and
Laithwaites, and as always.
The Indian batters are right to go.
I've worked really hard for the last four hours.
Actually, I'm going to be 100. How good is it to see Stokesy
performing in the way he is He's.
Probably England's best bowler. He's looked great.
He looks knackered now as I twisted to check the LBW.
Bang, rib breaks. I've still got a spell to bowl.
I've got 2 overs in first class cricket.
(00:21):
What was it? Right on off spin with a bit of
a kink. You got a kink, have you?
I'm Stuart Broad, just back fromManchester, where India didn't
just survive, they thrived. They pulled off a fantastic draw
to keep the series alive. And he's Josh Butler, just back
from sunning himself in beautiful Corfu.
(00:42):
How was your holiday, Jose? Yeah, I've been out to Corfu
with the family, which was very special.
Enjoyed that. Was keeping a little bit of an
eye on on the Test match, which obviously was another fantastic
test. But yeah, I've had a a nice week
away which has been very refreshing.
I've got to be honest, if I, if I saw you in an airport, if
you're just a cricket fan, Josh Butler, I've took look at my day
(01:06):
and go hang on a minute. Early July, Yeah.
What's going on late July? Yeah, what you what you
probably. Do in an airport why you're not
on a cricket ground. But that's just the way the the
schedules work now isn't it? Yeah, it's the way the schedules
worked, and it's also the way mysort of careers panned out, to
be honest. So yeah, my last first class
game was my last Test match, which was the the Ashes tour of
(01:26):
2122. So you know, just sort of the
way things have worked out with opportunities etcetera of T20
and yeah, a lot of time away in in the winters now and in the
summer just playing the blast inthe 100 and and obviously the
England one day stuff. So yeah, the calendar presented
a a nice opportunity to go away with the family and have a a
(01:48):
couple of wait a couple of weeksin sunny Corfu.
So yeah, we've we've really enjoyed that.
But yeah, there's certainly a few sort of raised eyebrows in
the airport, sort of, you know, what are you doing here in the
middle of the summer? But you're.
Quite good for a little awkward moments, aren't you?
Did you have anything on on holiday that that caught you by
surprise? Well, a bit of that sort of what
are you doing here and sort of trying to answer that in a nice
(02:10):
way, but I think my favorite moment.
So we went with another couple and their two kids who we were
good friends with in London. We've been out for dinner and
we've just gone for a drink. But it sort of seems that every
sort of person who'd been in England and is on holiday in
Corfu at that time and had gone with all their teenage kids was
(02:30):
in that same place at the same time.
And, and it was sort of a they were calling me like the Pied
Piper as I was walking through. There's obviously a lot of young
cricket fans, which was was nice, but the girls have gone
off and done their thing. And me and Ben, my friend, have
have sat down in the corner justhaving a quiet drink.
And a couple of sort of teenagers came up asking for a
picture. They were very polite, asked
(02:51):
very politely, but a bit nervous.
And so they were sort of fumbling about trying to, you
know, get the camera sorted and take the picture.
And I just sort of said, oh, Benright here.
He's actually my social media manager.
So he's pretty good at taking a picture and you, you, you get
him to take it. So my mate Ben, who has nothing
to do with my social media is absolutely fuming that these
(03:14):
people know him as as my social media manager and he's looking
for a way to get me back. Anyway, while I have been away,
I hear the the pods go into the national press.
It has, you know, all our sort of highbrow comments on high end
cricket and our knowledge from within the game.
In one of the biggest series of all time, England versus India,
we made the Daily Star. One of the big broadsheets.
(03:37):
Star stinks out fellow pundits England cricket star Michael
Atherton is fellow commentators choking on his father.
That's quite. That's quite UN quote I'm.
Reading that from the page. England ex England captain turn
pointed Athens and 57 has dodgy guts.
(04:00):
Oh gosh he's pictured. Athens is pictured just in
capitals gaffs. He found out.
So somehow our producer Rob Reeve had got a picture of the
article and put it on our WhatsApp group so that
(04:21):
everyone's in the commentary boxand, and Arthur's is on
commentary and everyone starts giggling.
Ravi Shastri absolutely loved it.
He's like in tears. And Arthur's on commentary.
He's like what, what's going on?What's going on back there?
And as soon as he came off air, didn't want to disrupt his like
professionalism on air showed him it.
(04:43):
And he was a little, he took in great humour, like smiling.
But you could tell he was a little bit like, oh, cheers,
Yeah, cheers. Great story.
And he just, he just turned to his like, you'll be hearing from
my lawyers. You'll be hearing from my
lawyers. So yeah, I think I haven't heard
from his lawyers. He might.
I might still do. I'm not sure but.
But was he as prolific as prolific as usual in the
(05:03):
convoys? I'm not going there again.
I'm not going there again. But yeah, it was, yeah.
That's our first sort of make ofthe paper.
So we should be Daily Star should be quite proud of that
should be all. Pretty pleased with that,
especially if one of like sports.
Great journalists and great. Was going to say.
He must be delighted to 1. Of the greatest.
(05:24):
Ever sports writers, writing andthe sentence construction,
That'd be right up his alley. The Daily Star.
Atherton Guffs. But yeah, I mean, I suppose we
should talk about the cricket really.
I, I mean, it's another 5 dayer,another, another Test match into
the final session, bit of drama actually in the final hour.
(05:45):
I don't know how much you, you saw of that, but we'll, we'll,
we'll get into that. But there's so much cricket
played in the Test match. I don't want the focus to be on
the slightly faster ending that that occurred, but highlights of
it. England won the toss and bowled
again and you thought, oh, Old Trafford, is that a bit of a
risk dry pitch, you know, get runs on the board and you try
(06:06):
and control the game. But arriving there, I mean, you
know this better than most. You've been in the Lancashire
changing room. Blanks haven't won a game.
They have. It's all been draws.
So even with the extra day of a Test match, 5 instead of four,
you're thinking, you know, this is this is going to be a flat
pitch. It's going to be hard work, hard
work for the bowlers. And we're still this whole
(06:28):
series has been high, high quality batting against bowling
attacks that are learning and, you know, developing.
I think so it was always going to be a bit bit batter friendly,
but the pitch just didn't allow any result to happen.
It it showed signs that it mightdo, but it just didn't.
But highlights Stokesy first five for 8-8 years, 1st 100 for
(06:52):
two years and routine. That's a pretty elite list,
isn't it? The five for 100 in there same
game, I saw a little list of thepeople had to have done it.
Botham's done that five times, which I thought was outrageous.
I mean some of the lists that popped up through that Test
match. Honestly, if you like your
stats, it was. It was just a dream.
Shipman Gill joined a list of Bradman and Gavaskar just for
(07:16):
the amount of hundreds in a series Rudy went past.
Test list to go. Yeah, Rudy went past Jack
Callas, Raul Dravid and Ricky Ponting while Ricky Ponting was
on commentary. I mean, how how awesome's that,
you know, that Ponting have flown in for these final two
Test match of the series. And and just by I want to say by
chance, probably the the bosses at Sky are probably a bit more
(07:39):
switched off than that. But yeah, for, for, for Ricky to
be on comms while Rudy went pasthim and full of grace and full
of charm, as Ricky always is. You know, to me, I think he
believes records are there to bebroken.
And, and next target is, say, target.
I don't think Rudy sees it as that.
But next on the list is the great Sachin Tendulkar.
(08:00):
Greatest, greatest it's ever been.
So yeah, amazing week for Joe Root.
He's not hunting down Sachin Tendulkar because that's
definitely not the way he plays his cricket or how he sees it.
But he's #2 on an incredibly elite list with what you seem
like is quite, you know, if he stays fit, like a quite
attainable kind of thing, Which is absolutely mind blowing,
(08:24):
isn't it, to think. We, we run the numbers on it a
bit because we get, we get a bitof time in the commentary box of
and we've got that much sort of data and, and stats around.
And for him to do it in the 2027Ashes series at home, which you
feel like would be a dream. You know, you, you at home
Australia, he'd have to, you'd have to go like the clappers a
(08:47):
little bit have to get like 120 odd runs or 130 odd runs a Test
match. So average 70.
So he's got to really play for that to happen.
But then England go to India, I think after that series.
And could you imagine Mumbai? Could you imagine taking over?
The game off they wouldn't let it happen they.
Wouldn't let it happen. They'd be, yeah, they wouldn't
(09:08):
be happy. No, it would just be
unbelievable, wouldn't it? But when you think of, I think
so. That's was he got 2100 since
COVID, which is like, yeah, but it's with his life as Nian.
It's awesome to watch. Do you sit there and think,
well, it's a given he's going todo it or is part of you
thinking, well, he's 34 coming on 35, someone, you know, not
(09:33):
many players in their career have had times where they have
never struggled or gone out of form or had injury problems.
He's just always scored runs andalways been in form, always been
fit. Is there any part of you that
thinks, well, he might not get there?
Or are you just like, well, it'sRuthie, he's going to get there?
I'd say I'm sort of like 5050 I think, or maybe a bit more in
his favour. Like, I think I do think there's
(09:56):
a really good chance that he gets hunger.
I don't ever see being an issue with Rooty.
I don't see that he's going to wake up in the next two or three
years and go, do you know what Idon't have the love for, for
batting and for playing for England.
You know, if he's always going to be in the team, like even if
he, you know, they have to be playing terribly, wouldn't he to
(10:16):
drop Joe Root? And obviously if that was going
to happen, he wouldn't get thereanyway.
But I just think he's been playing so well even throughout
that period of England winning one game in 17 when he was
captain and so much pressure andCOVID and all that stuff, He's
no, he's still scored so many runs throughout that period.
So even if he's going through what you'd say is a lean trot,
(10:38):
it's not really, it's not kind of lean trot that I've been
through sort of averaging 15 in a series.
He's, you know, he'll be averaging 3035.
And people are saying Joe Root needs to, you know, pick it back
up again. So he's never sort of never
contributing and never adding tothat tally.
So that's why I feel like he's got a good chance because he's
going to have some series like he's he's had where he plays
(11:00):
fantastically well and then he'salways just chipping away it.
But exactly, he doesn't see it like that at all either, does
he? Which I think is the the great
thing about him. He just loves playing for
England, scoring runs for England and trying to win
matches. But you know, maybe at the end
of his career, which I'm sure hewill, is go, wow, look at this
(11:21):
list I'm in and whether he's #2 or, or whether he actually
scales Everest and gets to #1 it's going to be pretty cool to
watch over the over the next fewyears.
We actually showed Rudy the liston the on the TV of him at #2
and typical Rudy's like, oh, that's pretty cool.
But actually when you look at it, you're like, Oh my, you're
all our heroes, all the people. Like we watched growing up.
(11:43):
He's sort of ahead of apart fromSachin to Dokris.
It's absolutely incredible. Mary in Your Catches asks what
does Joe Root care about more, breaking Sachin's record of the
amount of runs or scoring his first Ashes 100 Down Under?
Well, I would say he wants that Ashes 100 Down Under.
That's probably the only thing he hasn't really ticked off so
(12:06):
far. Breaking Sachin's record.
I feel like it will be. He must be aware of it.
You know, it's impossible to notsort of know about where he is
in in the world game at the moment.
And the fact that we're talking about it, you know, can Joe Root
do it? But genuinely, when you are
around him and when you talk to him and when you're sort of in
his company, it just isn't something that I get the sense
(12:29):
that motivates him. I just think he wants to score
as many runs as he can. He loves batting.
He loves being in the middle. He loves scoring runs.
As in a fantastic clip, I think Ricky Ponting asks him the
question about, you know, what'sbeen the thing that's clicked in
the last few years about scoringall these runs in these
hundreds. And he talks through about going
(12:49):
from sort of being quite technically focused about his
hands and his head and his trigger to sort of playing the
game and how he manages risk andhow he understands what he needs
to do. And I think he says he got in
touch with Sky to send him all his dismissals from certain
phases in his innings. And he's sat down and and sort
of as a fellow professional, listening to that attention to
(13:11):
detail and sort of work that he's done on his own behind the
scenes. And obviously he's getting the
results for it. It's awesome.
So I just think that's his, you know, that's his love and that's
his passion. And, you know, there's only one
test left of this summer now before it all the focus does
move on to on to the Ashes. And, you know, can Joe Root
(13:33):
score 100 in Australia will be one of those things?
And if he does, I think England are going to do well.
I think they've, this is the best chance England have had in
a a very long time going to Australia.
So yeah, I agree with that, yeah, which is cool.
But yeah, the Test match, back to the Test match that's just
happened. We've mentioned Stokes earlier,
5 for 100 and another player of the match performance.
(13:57):
You know, just how good is it tosee Stokes he performing in the
way he is? It's good, you know, he's, he's
probably England's best bowler at the moment.
I've got no doubts about that. He's moving the ball the most.
He's able to run in. He's got a brace front leg,
which he's not been able to havewith a sore knee for the last
few years. He's he's looked great.
He looks knackered now, if I'm honest, you know, he's got a
(14:20):
sore Peck or shoulder or tricep or bicep is hobbling around a
little bit. He's getting cramped in his
hamstrings, in his calves, everything.
You know, it's just the workloadthat he's, he's sort of gone
from nothing, barely played any cricket and then gone into four
Test matches like this. The the most physically
challenge, challenging Test matches you could ever wish to
(14:41):
play. So he, he, he looks out on his
feet at the moment with back-to-back Test matches now
Oval starting Thursday. It's a huge effort for him.
You know, it's, it's incredible.One thing I was how tired I
would get as a bowler, he would have to bat.
He asked about #6 and go out andscore 100 and face 250 balls or
so. I just can't imagine the level
(15:04):
of physicality that he is havingto, to, to put through.
And yes, he looks incredibly fitand lean, but you can see how
tired he is with all the, you know, emotion of, of leading as
well. But you know, he's not a
personal milestones man. You know, he doesn't really care
about hundreds and and fifers, but there was just a bit more of
(15:25):
a oomph in his in his first pumpwhen he got that 102 years is
relatively long time for a top six batter to not get 100 in
Test match cricket with the amount of Test match cricket
England play. And he he looked like he really
wanted like like really felt like he it was a bit of weight
off his shoulders. I think.
(15:45):
So he he was, he'd win 3. Of course, we know him.
He would want that in a, in a winning course.
He's hundreds and fifers in in adrawn or lost Test match.
The best players in the world, they don't mean anything to
them, do they? But no, yeah, Stokes, he's been
been awesome. The bowlers are just sometimes
(16:05):
you're really happy to be retired as a bowler.
And these pitches and this batting unit and just what's
happened to the bowlers, the amount of overs had to bowl and
and how breakthroughs have just been so difficult to come by.
Normally you get 660 odd and geta lead of 300, have them nought
for two and that's game done. That is game over.
(16:26):
And India just shows outrageous mental fortitude, strength,
determination, focus to then gosh, I sort of lost count
there. Was it like 430 for four or
something? And there's actually, I don't
know how much you saw of it, butJadeja is on 89 not out.
Washington Sundar never scored aTest match, 100 is on 75 not
(16:51):
out, I think. And the drinks break comes.
So what happens in Test match cricket?
If you get to the final hour, whatever comes last 15 overs or
5:00 PM, the final hour starts and then you play.
And we've not had to talk about this for so long because there's
been no draws under, under Ben Stokes.
But you can either shake hands, go to the opposition captain
(17:11):
normally or or batters and say let's shake hands and walk off
because there's not going to be a result.
Or you carry on and and try and force a result or try and play
cricket so that final hour arrives.
Draw is 99% the result. Nothing else can really happen.
But you do have the unique scenario that you've got 2
(17:32):
batters approaching hundreds. And Stokes, he took his cap off
and put his hand out to shake hands with Judeja and Judeja
went, no, I'm not going to shakeyour hand.
And where there's been a big upset, big, you know their
England are wrong, India on whatever.
(17:54):
There's certain instances where both teams can be right.
You know, Stokes is right to take his cap off and off with a
handshake. He's right.
His team have fielded 143 overs.They're knackered, they're
exhausted, they want to get off the field.
There's no result can happen. Also, the Indian batters are
right to go. I've worked really hard for the
last four hours. Actually.
I'm going to get 100, so there'snot there.
(18:16):
Doesn't. Is that exactly how you'd have
seen it if you were on the field?
I can imagine. That, no, I'd have been wanting
to get off. Broad Petulance.
I'd have been, I reckoned, well,I mean Stokes he then there was
a bit of verbals. You know, there was there was
some what's the right sort of frustrated comments from from
the England fielders, naturally.And then the Harry Brooke came
(18:39):
on to bowl and bowled absolute filthy, bowled off spin it.
It was a bit of an embarrassing moment because we put the little
ticker up at the bottom of HarryBrooke on to bowl one.
Test match wicket. Paul Kane Williamson caught down
the lakeside in Wellington, right arm, medium pace and he
ran up and bowled off spin. I didn't know bowled off spin
how I could actually look like apoor man's Dan Lawrence action.
(19:02):
So that's like sort of shows where the action was.
And he just bowled like down theleg side trying to almost get
the game done if they're going to get their hundreds.
So the standard completely disappeared and and I think
Washington Sundar blocked 1. So Stokes brought everyone in
within 10 yards just to say hit the runs, get us off this field.
(19:23):
So yeah, I could imagine myself being on the side of taking my
boots off, wanting to give the feet a rest.
Maybe I'd say to, I'd have said to Stokesy, Stokesy I'll go
field fine leg and I'd have thatfine leg would have been by the
changing rooms. So when I'm imagining you sort
of probably boots off, tucked, actually probably you've just
(19:45):
lobbed your boots off the field and you're you're stood in your
socks underneath the Indian dressing room just berating
them. Just yeah, we're ready to share
your hands. Should we just go off then?
And the game. Had his Joff Red is jumping tied
around his waist, Joffred his jumper just tied around his
waist like he was going to the polo or something, you know,
just stood there. But you know, I, I, I, I think
(20:08):
Indian, the Indian batters were right to go and get, you know, I
know, I know Stokes, his whole mindset and his whole team's
mindset is nothing about personal milestones if the game
can't be won. Get off the field.
That's how they saw it. And that's absolutely fine.
And they're allowed to be frustrated and India are allowed
to frustrate them. By the way, India were holding
their rights to bat for another hour, which I think I really
(20:30):
lost the plot because I'd have lost, missed my last train home.
Yeah, if I was on the field, I'dhave been frustrated.
I'd been grumpy, I'd have had a moment.
But Washington Sundar came over and into we interviewed him and
he was a bit emotional and he said this is for my family.
This is, you know what special moment, first Test match 100.
(20:50):
And I was like, damn right, you know, the Test match hundreds
are bloody hard to get. And he deserved it.
And actually he didn't get his Test match 100 in that last 15
minutes, did it in the four hours before where he saved the
game for India. The beauty of you just sort of
sat on the fence trying to say that both teams were in the
right instead of piling into to the batters when.
(21:13):
For the bottle, Liam Dawson batting 89 not out, 75 not out.
What's the play? I'm sort of saying even if you
shook hands at that point, the value of that innings is, is
there for all to see whether it's 7589 or 103.
I don't think the value of that changes, but it's actually where
(21:37):
we're all sort of cricket is. You know, we say I went up for
the milestones and there's some of that.
But yeah, there is a big elementto that.
And let's say Washington Sundar have been never scored a a Test
match century is, let's say wellwithin his rights to say I want
it to be a Test match century inthis battling course.
So I kind of see that, but I don't think whether they shook
(21:59):
hands at that point and we didn't see the the farcical
ending. The value of those innings from
those two players is is immense to their team, so I think.
You know how much we love all good handshakes?
You know, it's like one of our favourite has been for 15 years.
Like anytime we see one on the Internet, bang straight and send
it to honestly. The England players were left
hanging left, right and centre. They were all caps off.
(22:22):
Hands everywhere. Who in Judeja hit Harry Brooke
for six? Brookie again, trying to shake
his hand. No handshake it was.
I want the I want a carousel on our Instagram page of All
England play, you know? You All England players just.
Trying to get a hand yeah just Stokes then to Brooke, then to
but I can imagine I can see the frustrations from both sides and
(22:44):
like you said, it won't take away from from the Test match
what what amazing performances and it just adds another layer
to this series. You know, there's been 4 amazing
games and. One to go.
And one to go. That's it for Part 1.
Coming up, we're going to talk about batting partnerships and
substitutes right after this. Lathweights are proud partners
(23:06):
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Yeah, I like a glass of wine. Keep the Stuart Broad wine.
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Jose. This Test series has seen some
outrageous batting partnerships.Really.
You know Duckett, Crawley for example, Cairo, Rahul, Gale,
(24:12):
Washington, Sundar and Jadeja. What makes a good batting
partnership? I.
Think there's a sort of chemistry between two players
and two people that ultimately as an individual and as a
batter, you want to feel comfortable.
You want to feel happy and confident at the crease.
And there are certain players who can be stood at the other
(24:34):
end that you know, you can't putthis down on paper why it is,
but the, the sort of understanding or even friendship
you might have off the field translates really well on the
field. And you can get stuck in in the
middle and there's little conversations that you have
between balls or at the end of the overs and someone who
(24:54):
understands you really well and might be someone you actually
enjoy training with. It might be something technical
or remember what you said, you know, at the start of the day
you were going to be, you know, really try and be positive
against any width. And I think that's been one of
the great things about Crawley and, and Duckett, two players
who play very differently. So imagine as a bowler must be a
(25:15):
bit of a headache when, you know, Duckett taps one out to
deep point and they swap ends and you you go from a short
left-hander to an incredibly tall right-hander.
And they both have incredibly different games and different
strengths, different weaknesses,different scoring areas.
So I think that allows them to be as one part of their
(25:35):
partnership, which is incrediblyeffective.
The numbers that they're puttingup.
I know someone like Zach's been under pressure at times for his
overall record, but his contributions in match winning
causes are great. And that partnership with Ben
Duckett is obviously working. You know, the they as a
partnership average 45 had an incredible lick as well.
(25:58):
So when you're talking about selection or so that is a the
dream. You know, those two guys, you're
not looking at them as individuals, you're sort of
piercing them together and putting them out there and go,
this is what we're going to get as the collective.
Those two as a partnership are are doing that fantastically
well. I think of Gil and KL Rahul,
probably 2 quite calm charactersin the middle.
You know, I'm sure they'd be very gutsy and committed and
(26:21):
feisty in their own way, but sort of, you know, with class
and elegance and composure. So I imagine they're a a really
nice fit together and Sundar andJadeja 2 sort of gritty
characters. Actually, I think quite seeing
that side of Washington, which, you know, maybe some of the fans
and stuff in the England team haven't seen him loads.
(26:41):
You know, obviously his commentsat Lords and to be fair to him,
you know, he'd have got a good bit of stick out there I'm sure.
And he's toughed it out and played a great knock for his
side. And so the two of them, Julija's
been batting brilliantly. You know, he's been a real thorn
in the side for England throughout the series.
But there's just something aboutsomeone and there's a feeling.
(27:01):
I used to have it with Owen Morgan actually.
I just really enjoyed batting with him.
We've had a really nice understanding with each other.
Left hand, right hand, saw the game pretty similarly.
By the end they'd played a lot of cricket together so you sort
of just knew what each other were going to do without having
to really talk about it. It's a big part of selection, I
think. All credit to Stokes, McCullum,
(27:23):
Rob Key, those guys who it's notas simple as just looking at the
numbers and putting them out there.
It's how do you fit everyone together, what, what roles do
they play within that as well, whether it's the more aggressive
role in a partnership, the guy who occupies the crease, how
they rotate, strike well. That's something England did
really, really well and you havethat understanding of running
(27:45):
between the wickets as a partnership.
Ollie Pope and Joe Root did thatbrilliantly.
I'm sure Rudy saying how much cramp he had by running with
Poppy, but it's it's a big part of the game.
Imagine as a bowler, Duckett andCrawley must be as polar
opposites as you could bowl that.
Yeah, offer completely differentthings.
Then they obviously the left right hand, different heights,
(28:06):
hit the balls in completely different places that you know,
the Crawley stride he'll get in where he meets the ball is
completely different to to duck it.
The the length you got a ball to, to get Ben Duckett driving
is obviously different to Crawley.
Actually, another partnership I probably would like to add that
we've seen a lot of this summer is the Shubman Gill, Rishabh
(28:28):
Pant, who are great friends. But that shows an amazing
quality when you have a player like a Rishabh Pant who just
goes, you know, does his own thing, almost plays by numbers.
You know, he'll sweep one, he'llhit one straight, then block
seven in a row. Gil plays a huge role in just
letting him do his thing and notletting himself get affected.
There'll be club cricketers listening to this, wondering
(28:50):
about partnerships that they play with on a Saturday or a
Thursday night and knowing what I mean when someone else is
going at the other end and hitting boundaries.
Very hard to control your own brain, isn't it, And go play my
way, do what I'm doing. And Gil is an absolute artist at
it. So.
So Pan will be charging down andwhacking 1 into the crowd for
six and Gale just goes one, cheers and keeps going on his on
(29:13):
his merry way. And that's there's definitely an
art in in that as well, isn't it?
Absolutely. I just as soon as you said that
it just made me think of Roy andBairstow for England at the top
of the order in whiteboard stuff.
They 2 incredibly dominating powerful batters, but they
created a great partnership and that understanding at times,
they just gave up on their ego. So if Johnny was off to a flyer
(29:37):
and was smacking it everywhere, Jay Roy instead of going let's
go shot for shot and I want to catch up with Johnny and, you
know, show I'm I'm just as destructive, would actually tuck
in behind him and say, you know what, today's your day and I'm
going to play my way. Which was still striking pretty
healthy and hitting the boundaries, but he wouldn't try
(29:59):
and compete with him and try andsort of, you know, go side by
side and lack of ego I think is one of those things and just
sort of going. You know, my role at this time
in this partnership is to play this role and when you've.
Got that. How honest would you
understanding how honest in thatpartnership would you go J Roy
or morgues? Come on, man, like move your
feet. What are you doing or why are
(30:20):
you playing that show or, or or are you just going?
I've got to build them up, make them feel positive, make them
feel like motivated and and happy.
I think that comes down to the relationship you have with that
person is and it's different foreach person.
So I think there'd be some players I could say, hey, come
on, you're better than that. But the other guys where you
might want to do it in a different way and they play a
(30:40):
shot that you think looks a bit risky and you go, you might try
and say, Hey, don't forget you're so strong through this
area. Like that could be a good option
against this bowler. So you're trying to direct them
away from maybe what they were doing in a in a different way.
But there's certainly some guys you could just be so honest with
and say, you know, sort of you're not disagreeing with each
other, be of yeah, hey, come on,pull yourself together.
(31:03):
You're better than this or you're better than that.
And the whole McCullum era, theytalk about it a lot about
spending time with each other, not just at cricket.
Get to know you, your players away from the game, get to know
what they like to do, how they like to be spoken to, what
things they're into. Because sometimes in a
partnership you're out there foran incredibly long time and you
(31:23):
actually start talking about stuff, nothing to do with
cricket in the middle of overs or what you've seen in the crowd
and sort of have a bit of a jokeand a laugh about something like
that. So, but that friendship and
actually it's something I look at this England team at the
moment, they've got a lot of guys in that side who've now
played a lot of cricket together.
There's a nice number of Test matches behind each individual.
(31:45):
They're all really good friends.They obviously enjoy each
other's company. They're all incredibly, some
really settled top quality international cricketers within
that. So I just think they're coming
into this perfect kind of zone which we had in the white ball
stuff. It probably took, you know, two
years from that 2015 to 2019 andaround about 2017.
(32:07):
Now you're getting into that. Everyone just knows their role,
they know everyone just fits into place.
It's like a jigsaw coming together and that Test side just
looks exactly like that to me now, which I think is really,
really exciting, especially withobviously what's to come so.
Yeah, particularly the batting group.
Particularly the batting group. But you know, actually there was
(32:27):
an incident that Richard punt got hit on the foot, quite nasty
wokes. He bought him like a slow ball
Yorker. He tried to reverse sweep him.
Traditional Test match shot to get yeah.
Proper Test match cricket slow ball Yorker reverse sweep caught
him on the outside of the boot, which I'm not actually don't
really see people get hit there,really get hit on the toe or the
top of the boot. It hit him right on the outside
and this balloon came onto the side of his foot.
(32:50):
Hobbly looked in absolute agony,to be fair, got a golf cart,
sort of a golf cart ambulance onto the field.
Off he went. And you know, rumors were
fracture or broken foot or somebody did heroically come out
and bat. And it brought up this huge
debate about substitutions in cricket.
And I want to put your brain on that actually.
So Captain Stokes was asked about it at the end of the game
(33:12):
and in typical, he sort of sat on the fence.
He went absolutely ridiculous. Such a move would create too
many loopholes. Pick your 11 for a game and
injuries a part of the game. I completely understand the
concussion replacement because that is player welfare and
safety I think. Honestly I think the
conversation should stop around injury replacements.
If you stick me in an MRI scanner I could get in another
(33:34):
player straight away. So he obviously thinks no to
injury replacements. What are what are your thoughts
on it? I think it's fair argument for
when you put it like that, therecould be, you know, a way to
take advantage of it. You know, that's obviously
extreme. I think, you know, is there a
way that you could police it better to still allow, you know,
(33:55):
a genuine 11 V 11 contest? Obviously India are are Hanford
by that with Richard Pant's injury, you know, he bravely
came out to bat again, didn't he?
Which was? Incredible.
Incredible. But he kind of you're getting a
sub in some ways because they'vegot an injury replacement to
then keep wicket, haven't they? So it's not like he has to go
(34:15):
out there and keep on one foot or they had to get, I suppose KL
rule could have done it luckily for for them.
But I don't know what's an extreme idea.
You you get 3 substitutes throughout a Test match and you
could use them at your discretion, whether that's for
an injury or whether that's for a change of tactics.
(34:36):
You know, for example, you name a squad of 14, you know, on day
five you might bring in another spinner for a SEMA and you use
that for injuries as well. And that's quite, I'm just
thinking off the top of my head,it was quite a outlandish.
I mean, that would keep the quality of the game high,
wouldn't it? Because you, you you, you're
able to adapt players to to different.
And you just say within that if an injury happens, you've you've
(34:59):
got those Subs there. But I don't know what do you
think? Have you had times where you
think? This should change.
I'm a bit with you. I, I, I think the art of being a
captain or a coach slightly is in selection.
So you're picking players that you think, yes, can do the job
on the surface and the pitch, but also that are fit enough to,
to get through five days Test match cricket and, and deliver
(35:21):
over that, that period of time. So I would probably, I wouldn't
like to see players get injured like with a side strain that
sometimes take two or three daysto, to show on a scanner because
of the, the inflammation. So very hard to prove.
I think that would be difficult to to replace if I walked off
with a back spasm. Again, quite difficult to prove
if I can bowl, if I can't, a fracture or broken finger,
(35:45):
broken foot, broken arm, quite easy to prove that that that's
happened in the game and and you're injured.
So I think I could, I would be quite happy to lean on the side
that if you're batting, you get a bouncer, hits you on the
forearm, breaks your forearm, then you can be replaced by a
batter. But I think you'd also have to
(36:06):
probably name the whole 11, namea replacement or what
replacement would come in for each individual player.
Because of what? You don't want to get into the
situation like you had in AT20 where I can't remember exactly
what happened, but I think duvetwhack, big left-hander whacks it
and maybe bowls medium pace or spin.
(36:26):
Medium pace. Got a concussion replacement and
I think was it Hashit Rana came in about 95 mile an hour and got
4 foot or something, you know, not, not like for like.
So I think there's there's definitely teams will always
look to find little loopholes orexpose expose rules and and make
them better for their team. So I think you'd have to be very
(36:48):
strict on on what you're lookingto do and I can't be I've got to
be honest, I can't remember. Yes, I've played through pain
and I've played through particularly getting bounced.
It hit me in the jaw or the backand it bruises up and you've got
to ball through a bruise. I got injured at Adelaide once
where I tore my AB 4 centimeter,tore through it, tear through it
felt like I was sort of put a knife through it.
(37:10):
No chance of of playing on. I'm out of the game so I've
can't remember sort of getting abroken hand or something that
was so badly injured, but I had to carry on.
I've either gone, I'm completelyout of this game or I'm fine.
I can do the job. Yeah, I had that actually in my
my last Test match in the in Sydney, one from Mark Wood kept
(37:33):
low I think on the 1st or must have been the first day.
Now I've closed my hands too early.
It's hit the back of my left hand and was sore straight away.
But it's sort of like, you know,as as a wicketkeeper you do get
knocks and it is sore. So I tried to carry on, but
every time I caught the ball waslike, this actually does really
hurt. So went off talk, talked to the
(37:55):
physio about it. Ollie Pope took the gloves
actually. And then we nipped around the
corner for an X-ray and had a crack or a break in in my index
finger on my left hand. So yeah.
And the similar sort of situation is so Ollie Pope could
keep wicket throughout the Test.And we had a subfielder and then
(38:16):
have you heard it like a ring block, this injection.
So when it came to us batting, I'm batting #7 it must be, I
think Stokes and Johnny are batting and they're actually
putting on together a good partnership.
So there's a timing of like the ring block lasts 2 hours or
something about where and then when it would wear off and you'd
have to have enough. So I ended up having two because
(38:37):
they'd actually put together a good part.
It's horrible. You know, I didn't say I've got
the biggest pain threshold actually anyway, so I'm not
trying to say oh, I was the toughest guy in the room.
But so I've had another one of these injections gone out to bat
with a numb left hand basically and tamely chipped 1 to cover I
think 5th or 6th ball out for a duck and just sort of walking up
(38:59):
below. What was the point in that
getting that And then had to have the again the same thing
for the second innings, but luckily managed to get off the
mark so I didn't bag him. Didn't bag him with a broken
digit, which was just. Was good, but yeah, I just
thought, I think. I've just thought of one that I
had at the Oval. I think it must have been, well,
(39:19):
Boomer was playing so Boomer maybe 2018.
So Boomer bounced me and I had all my protective equipment on
like an ice hockey goalkeeper, but it's managed to hit the bit
in my ribs that wasn't protected.
So like, you know, when it hits you in the ribs immediately
like, oh, like wins you saw. I was like OW played on a little
bit and got off that night out and I was sore, but there's no
(39:44):
bruise. So normally it comes up like,
you know, huge like purple bruise or something where the
cricket balls hit you. So I'm looking nothing there.
But it's really sore when I'm breathing and like moving and
got back the next day. Again, no bruise.
But and when you've got no bruise, you can't really go cool
lads. Look at that Boomer hit me
there. It hurts.
But I couldn't really move very well.
(40:05):
So I was in the physio room and I've still got a bowl.
Another innings and I was in thephysio room, like watching out
the little gap to the to the pitch.
And there's a big appeal on one of our batters.
So I turned really quickly to look at the TV to see if I could
see it live. And I heard my rib crack as I
twisted. It went and I was fortunate
(40:27):
doctors, I went, oh, doc, I think I've just broke my rib and
I'm holding it like pinching it.And he sort of, he heard it as
well. He heard the crap, so he comes
and goes. Yeah, yeah, you've just bust
your rib. So he's obviously broken my rib
with the ball, but it was still lodged in place.
And as I twisted to check the LBW, bang, rib breaks.
(40:48):
I've still got a spell to bowl. And I remember I ran into Chica
Dawan, first of all, like, absolute agony bowling, absolute
agony again. I think I had one of those, you
know, whether it was sort of cream or whatever to try and
numb the pain, but every single ball was was disgusting.
Unfortunately, Jimmy bowled really nicely.
It was when Adele Rashid bowed aJaffa to care Rahul round the
(41:11):
wicked. Yeah.
So I think that might have been 2018. 2018, yeah.
Absolutely, and I barely played a part that second innings
because every time I just tried to hold up an end.
Yeah, real pain. But fortunately the the lads got
it done. I've just thought of actually
one really funny as the Roses game, Liam Livingstone's captain
(41:31):
of lengths at the time and fielding in what it must be
this. He must have batted in the first
innings and then third innings, the game he's broke his thumb,
broken left thumb and we're chasing down this score.
We're still I think, man, no, hemust be 70 or 80 short at this
stage. 8 down. Livy's there.
(41:52):
He's got his thumb now in a cast, come back to watch like
the last day and he's like gone and got his whites on and you're
thinking you still need 80, You can't hold a bat.
And he's got his whites on, he'sgot his cast.
And you know those oboe wicket keeping.
Yeah, yeah. So he's now got one of these
across his arm like a shield. And it got to I think.
(42:14):
So Jimmy's had to go up to #10 obviously because Livi can't bat
at this stage. There's still need 50 to win.
The Yorkshire lads I think aboutto shake hands, think, you know,
we've just taken the last wicketdone.
Livvy starts walking out with this OBO shield and like his bat
in one hand as if he's going to some sort of Braveheart battle.
(42:36):
And then Jimmy got out of the next ball.
He didn't even face the ball, didn't even face absolute goal.
But yeah, they were sort of couple of stories of people
playing with injuries, which I think, you know, we saw Stokes's
comments about. You just do whatever it takes.
There's plenty of guys in Test cricket who are cracking on with
a few injuries. OK, still loads to talk about,
(42:57):
including The Oval, Shubman Gill, and Joss's filthy offspin
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(44:05):
So, Brody, we've had four Tests that have lasted the distance,
five day matches, bowlers who have bowled a lot of overs, that
Oval, the last Test of the summer, dragging their weary
bodies there. What does that feel like?
Where do you summon up the energy for for one more game in
a massive finish? Hi Test match cricket, you know
the series on the line still England 21-UP.
(44:28):
You find the energy you. What I would be doing is not
really training leading into thegame.
I'd maybe go the day before, getmy kit in the changing room, do
a few laps around the ground, doa bit of visualization.
But at this stage in a series, you know what you're doing, your
run UPS fine. It's all about getting rest and
recovery to to make sure you canfire up again in the next game.
(44:51):
So yeah, sort of calm down in training, just get mentally
right and ready to go. But yeah, I think the Oval
brings sort of great emotions, really.
It's it's quite always been known as the final Test, I
suppose, hasn't it? It's always that advertisement
around the ground and you arrivethere such a special place to to
play. And I think it's special to a
(45:13):
lot of players because it has been the final Test of summers.
It has been the final Test of series.
So you remember great experiences of winning series or
holding out for for a series. The crowd are always sort of on
the edge of their seat because every ball matters because the
the series might be on the line,etcetera.
So it's always holds holds a lotof special memories for players.
(45:34):
So always feels a really beautiful place to turn up and
you know, as a player, the the changing rooms, particularly now
the, the pavilion, it's just done beautifully.
So it's just a, it's such a wonderful place to turn up and
and finish the the Test match summer.
And you know, and we've been blessed.
We have been blessed as cricket fans this summer in four Test
(45:55):
matches against India with with exactly we what what we wanted
to see a really hard fought series, superstars from the
world game doing what what they do and entertaining us all.
And I think the Oval will. I think the Oval will be another
absolute cracker. Yeah.
How do you find it turning up tothe Oval Office?
It must be about two years to the day, probably when you had
(46:16):
your final day in Test cricket. What's it like going back to the
venue? And on your other, you know,
what are, I suppose that day must be your sort of, you know,
fondest memory and thinking backto what it's like to finish a
series at that ground. Yeah, I love the place.
Yeah. Brilliant memories from
finishing. Yeah, two years.
I think it was the 31st of July 2023.
So, yeah, this week, two years ago, just, I mean, firstly,
(46:41):
where's that time gone? Absolutely crazy to me that
that's, that's two years since I've bowled a ball in, in
cricket. And yeah, I can walk into the
over certain grounds around the world.
Trent Bridge, Lords, The Oval are them where it doesn't have
to be anyone in the seats, you don't have to have anyone in the
ground. It's still got an aura about it.
(47:01):
Still got a feeling that makes you feel very happy.
And, and the Oval's definitely one one of those.
I love going out to the middle in the mornings as a
commentator. Obviously on the different side
of the ground now, used to be change room, now press box.
But love going out to the middle, having a having a look
at the pitch, the surface, getting a feel for, for what the
crowd is, is going to do. And yeah, it's a whole great
(47:24):
memories of of the Oval and thatparticularly that retirement day
and taking my last wicket there,hitting a six there, but not
part, not one bit of me as though I want to be out there
again. It's I feel very.
Concerned there's some tired bowlers, they probably need to
rotate the bowling attack a bit.You could take your boots along
this week and I. Don't think I've got any boots,
(47:46):
you know, honestly I don't thinkI've got any boots.
I've kept my bat that I hit a six with, I've kept the ball
that I got the last wicket with and I don't have any.
Rotated them so much then you just who knows which year.
Last pitch, probably. Well, yeah, a bit of that as
well. Kept the shirt somewhere as
well. But yeah, it's we were taking
the Mick out of DK Dennis Kartikactually in the in the
(48:07):
commentary box when Pam got injured and say, what do you
reckon DK? Was he 40 maybe?
Do you reckon next test, get yourself in out the out the coms
box, get your whites on and awayyou go.
And he sort of had a cheeky smile, as if to say I could
still do it, I could still have a cry.
Definitely well 1I player is probably looking forward to the
Oval and is Shubman Gill. He's obviously played great
(48:29):
throughout the series. I think he scored 722 runs
already in the series. 4 centuries.
Could become the first captain to ever score 5 in a series if
he managed to and it seems a long shot but is to what's from
Housman Maths Bradman 974. He'd have to have a pretty good
game to to get up there, but of course he's had a great series,
(48:52):
hasn't he? Incredible.
You sort of, I mean, they can't win the series India, but you
sort of feel like he deserves toin a sense, his first series as
captain to have got 100 in his first innings at Headingley,
then a big double and A and A and another 100 at edge Baston.
And, and I think actually, I'm going to go as far as saying, I
thought Old Trafford was probably as his best knock
(49:14):
coming out at none for two on a hat trick and just dousing the
fires, keeping everything calm. And, and the respect he will
have grown the respects he wouldhave gained in the changing room
from doing what he did at Old Trafford.
He's been, he's been spectacular, to be, to be fair
to him. And that's why this series has
been so interesting to to watch because honestly, I heard a lot
(49:37):
of Indian fans say, and maybe Ravi Shastri said India could be
3 nil up. I don't know.
They haven't won the real key moments.
And we know Test match cricket is about that.
Yes, they've got the highest runscores in the series, maybe have
the highest wicket, but it's allabout winning the key moments.
And England have managed to do that.
I think India have won more daysin the Test match for sure.
(50:00):
But England in their own conditions are phenomenal at
finding those little moments that just shift a Test match.
And and that is the crucial partof winning Test match cricket.
So I don't think India deserve to be 3 nil up.
They could have been three nil up if they'd have just, you
know, just won. Those little hours were the most
crucial in Test match cricket. But they'll they'll be coming to
(50:21):
the Oval with with a chance to draw the series and there'll be
no one in world cricket if they do get the win at the Oval and
draw the series, who could go? They don't deserve to draw the
series. You know, I think it's been one
of those series that that that adraw.
It sounds ridiculous if only Americans are listening, that
when you say draw would be a fair result after six weeks of
(50:42):
of graft. But it does feel like a the
series doesn't deserve a draw, but India does.
It deserves something out of it.Yeah, and I think on on Shipman,
I think you go back to, you know, our first pod was one of
the you know, you just been mentioned just been named sorry
as as captain of India. And obviously everyone knew what
(51:02):
a sort of superstar and coming man he was.
But now, five weeks down the line to think of, you know, the
place he's put himself as a player and captain from from
what he's done is I don't know if anyone could have foreseen
it. You know, I think everyone
probably knew he's a top, top class player with huge
potential, even know how good hewas already.
(51:24):
But to go and do what he's done in his first series as captain,
obviously his side A21 down, which I'm sure he'll be
disappointed about when you, like you mentioned they've
played a lot of the cricket and you know, if they'd just found a
way in those key moments to beena bit better, it could be two
one the other way is probably how I'd see it.
But. Have you dropped while he's been
(51:45):
over? A couple of times to sort of
begrudgingly say well played, good.
Blue ticks or did he get back toyou?
No, he does reply. He does reply, which is nice.
So that's, you know, yeah, otherwise I don't think I'd send
him another message. But anyway, that's let's wrap
that up. We've had a few good reactions,
haven't we? So some listener questions.
Jose, we've had loads of reactions to last week's episode
(52:08):
about my best bowling spells. Actually a lot of my mates
texted me going, Oh yeah, episodes, me, me, me, me, all
about me. So I've tried to ignore those,
but I did blue tick those. The listeners have been telling
us the best spells they've seen live.
They have. Richard on Spotify has told us
that his pal Gareth Davies once took 10 for 11 off 12 overs.
That's what, 10 for 11 off 12 overs in the North Wales Cricket
(52:33):
League. Getting the 10th wicket on his
final ball with a questionable LBW apparently deserves it.
Deserves it. Deserves A questionable LBW,
whoever's given it. Family member, friend, just
opposition. Opposition member of triggered
deserves it. To get a 10 for that's that's
pretty incredible. Great.
(52:54):
I don't want a scorecard. Yeah, I now want to know more
about the spell. Was it spinning?
Was it seam bowler? Good catches, no space for a run
out. Richard, get back on to us.
More detail please anyway. And also Robert Cusack has wrote
in to say he took 5 for 12, including a hat trick in the T20
(53:15):
once and still managed to lose the game.
Batter's fault, batter's fault you can't do.
You've done your job as a bowlerthere, haven't you?
5 for 12 with a hat trick. Well, unless the other bowlers
have had a real stinker, I suppose.
Well, he's done his job. He's done his job.
Robert's done his job. Pretty gutted to lose the game
in that situation. So yeah, Robert well bowled
(53:37):
Gareth well bold. Yeah, one of the YouTube
subscribers has said they're playing a friendly against our
local rivals who turned up a fewplayers short.
We've all been there and we drewstraws to see who'd play and
help them out. The straws of justice decided
they ended up with one of our junior wicket keepers who ended
up bowling and taking 6 for six for three and also caught our
(53:59):
best batter out. So you you've given them your
junior keeper, he's had a rock'n'roll, got 6 for three and
taking the belt in catch. So who's who's trying to tell
him he's a Wicker keeper? Yeah, absolutely waste.
I sort of in my mind there, I almost want him to start
keeping, taking the keeping padsoff, give me the ball.
(54:21):
I know how to get these boys out.
He's got a weakness straight. I'll nip it back through the
gate and just Bang, Bang, bang. I sort of hoped that he'd be
opening the bowling for the 1st 11 on the the following.
Week pretty good selection, wouldn't it?
Midweek to say we should probably let the let the
youngster loose with the ball. So yeah, brilliant, brilliant to
hear. Thanks so much for everyone
getting. Have you ever had?
(54:41):
Have you ever had a bowl, Jose? I've bowled 2 overs in first
class cricket. What was?
It right arm off spin with a bitof a kink.
All right, you got a kink, have you?
Yeah, it was a bit of the farcical kind of ending of the
Test match, Somerset V Surrey ona flat one at Taunton.
So we were trying to set up somedeclaration bowling, but I think
(55:04):
I was even, I wasn't even considered for declaration
bowling. I think it's once Surrey decided
that the declaration wasn't going to get to a point they
needed it to. I was then summoned to bowl even
after that to just get us to thefinal hour.
So not pretty. And not effective.
Not effective and won't ever be seen again.
(55:24):
You've also been responding to our fast bowlers, 11 from last
week, and this is pretty fair. Lots of people have been
shouting up for Alex Tudor who once scored 99 not out as night
Watchmen. Maybe we missed the trick there
broadly. Yeah, I think we did.
I think we did. Yeah.
He was a good player. He batted, did he bat #3?
I remember. Didn't Graham Thorpe back the
(55:46):
winning runs or or or or whackedA4 off the final ball of one
over to mean that Alex you need to hit a six to make his hundred
but they only needed like 3 to win or something and he hit a
four to go to 99. No way.
I kind of feel like I can see him with the old scoreboard with
the 99 like held up. I feel like 99, what I've been
(56:07):
like 12. I feel like he went for a pull
shot, like a big pull shot to run at a six and top edged it
over the keeper for four. If that's correct, that's great
knowledge. Do you know what?
What's going to happen now? We'll put that on our socials
and it'll just be like a drill through the covers and it'll be
completely made out, won't. It just knock to one, forget to
99 to win the game. But yeah, fair enough.
(56:29):
We missed him out. You're back at you know, we'll
have to drop someone, but we'll pick choose.
Well done. Who we're dropping, I can't
remember who we had. Drop me.
Get rid of me. I don't like batting.
The nighthawk gone. The Nighthawk no more.
No more, right Jose? That's all we've got time for
today. But remember, you can still
listen to those episodes on yourfavorite podcast app or watch
(56:51):
them on YouTube or Spotify. And keep your thoughts coming
in, use the comments section or the form in our episode
description. And that's it for this week,
Jose. We're back again after The Oval
to reflect on just the most incredible series between
England and India. Thanks to our sponsors Sage and
Laithwaites, and as always.
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