Betfair and The Overlap have launched a new show: Stick to Cricket, headed up by England cricket legends: Michael Vaughan, Sir Alastair Cook, David ‘Bumble‘ Lloyd and Phil ‘Tuffers’ Tufnell, with special guests joining them on a weekly basis.
Ahead of England’s first test in their series against India, the four sat down and previewed the match which starts on Friday at Headingley…
Sir Alastair Cook on Ollie Pope over Jacob Bethell at number three
“Ollie Pope’s 170 meant a lot to me, him and Crawley were under the pump and they delivered.
“When I left New Zealand I thought they’ll go with Jacob Bethell but if he isn’t leaving the IPL to come and play a test match, for whatever reason that it, it’s not a punishment, but that’s the way the cards have fallen whether it’s Bethell’s fault or not, and if he’s that desperate to play I would have said he would have come out and played, then he’d have guaranteed his England selection.
“I don’t care what’s going on behind the scenes on that. “Will Pope play at number three in Perth? He’s in possession at the minute and we’ll find out if he’s good enough against the likes of Jasprit Bumrah.
“The issue I’ve always said about Pope, and I don’t think this changes, is his first 20 balls, Tuffers is more likely to get through his first 20 balls.
“Lots of judges of players have said that Bethell is really good, but at Warwickshire he struggled like a year ago, he struggled and was banging six behind Hayne, Davis and guys that were picked ahead of him all the time.”
Sir Alastair Cook on how England can get the better of India’s inexperienced, young and talented side
“I think the first two hours are going to be quite crucial against this India side. “What I can’t work out, and we’ll find out obviously, is by taking those two really experienced players out, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have been a little bit on the downslide, the impact they have in the dressing room is now gone and when you take senior players out like that, even if they’re great leaders, they might get things wrong, but no one’s ever questioning those two in that changing room. So, now there’s almost a clean slate.
“One thing we know they’re going to be so talented, they could pick, 18 batsmen of almost of the same quality and it’d be really interesting to see whether that talent, without those two there now flies, they think: ‘I can actually express myself, we can bat how we want to bat.’
“Obviously if you go into a batters meeting and Kohli will be like: ‘this is what we should do’ and they all might have to nod. Now they might go: ‘actually, we’re younger, we want to take on England a bit more, we want to be more aggressive, this is what suits us.’
“That’s why I think the crucial thing in England, in this first game at Headingley, is that England just don’t allow that talent to show.
“Hit top of off more times, suppress their talent to start with, but it’s so crucial because in England, in a long five test match series or any five test match series, it’s so hard to stop the rot.
“So, if England can create that rot with their inexperienced players, I think that’s how England can win.”
Michael Vaughan on England’s best approach to the test series
England’s record against India here in the UK in the last three times they’ve won 4-1, 3-1 and they were 2-1 down and they came back the year after and drew 2-2. Primarily, beating India at home, England have bowled to take the top of off stump better. So, that’s all I’m talking to the team about. Make sure that you try and press them on that forward defence. That’s all you need to do. Keep pressing them on the forward defence, and I reckon they snick off.
Phil Tufnell on Shoaib Bashir’s role in the England bowling lineup
“Is Shoaib Bashir the best spinner in England? I’m not sure, I think he can bowl a really good ball but I am slightly worried about his length, so it depends what kind of spinner you want him to be.
“I don’t think that they’ll necessarily play Bashir as first innings, do a holding job, go at two-and-a-half, three an over, get yourself a couple of wickets and then when it turns, let the bowlers rotate and everything.
“I think they almost play Bashir as just a wicket taker, and it doesn’t matter about how many runs he goes for, just try and get some wickets.
“I mean that can be difficult when you’re targeted on flat ones against Australia and India because he’s not great at holding a length. He is very young. “I was always brought up as a spin bowler, get maidens, create pressure, work as a unit.”
David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd on the one bowler better than Jasprit Bumrah
“Jasprit Bumrah is a very good bowler but is he the greatest bowler of all time? No, Fred Truman. Nobody has been as quick as Fred. Who was the first person to get 300 test match wickets? Fred. And he only played 60 test matches.
“I remember one day someone said to him: ‘He’s marvellous this chap Goff, he’s rather quick. I think he’s probably the quickest bowler that Yorkshire has produced since the war.’
“Fred just replied with ‘I can bowl faster than that in my mac and a pair of f*****g wellingtons!’”
The Stick to Cricket team’s all-time top Indian batsmen (in no particular order):
- Sachin Tendulkar
- Virat Kohli
- Sunil Gavaskar
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Mohammad Azharuddin
