Pressure on India and Dilshan’s genius

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The fact that we came back so strongly against Pakistan last week after the defeat to Holland gives us a good precedent in preparing to play India today at Lord’s. Seeing India lose to West Indies reminded us that they are beatable and that, as champions, there’s an enormous pressure on them to stay in this fantastic tournament. More than there is on England, I think. The expectations on India are very high. We certainly believe that if we go out with the same fearless approach we showed against Pakistan, we’ll beat India.

After losing to South Africa in the first Super 8s game on Thursday, we had Friday off. I’ve just moved into my new flat so I spent the day moving wardrobes and painting walls. I mean, I was taking it easy: I’m not going to get injured shifting furniture in the middle of a World Cup and end up as a quiz question.

The team are all together in a hotel but I live close to Lord’s now and since we spend so much time on the road anyway, it was nice to spend a day at home. It was relaxing to get out of cricket mode. And in a big tournament, that can be important.

Saturday, we trained. We had a good game of football to start with, then some individual preparation. Once you’re in the tournament it’s about mental preparation. The football brings a competitive edge out of people and helps us to relax and not get uptight. Who’s the best footballer in the England side? I’d say… Jimmy Anderson. He’s in the mould of, well, a Frank Lampard.

After football, we worked on our individual skills; I just work on my basics throughout the competition, keep me ticking over.

The tournament has been awesome. I love Twenty20 anyway – but turning up mid-afternoon and playing Twenty20 in front of a packed house every time, with the support we’re getting. It’s phenomenal. I’ve never experienced anything like it.

Looking at the other teams, Tillekeratne Dilshan is an absolute phenomenon. I was watching him a lot during the IPL. The way he plays, with so many unusual shots might make people bracket him with my style; I’m just fascinated to see a right-hander do it. I’m not sure he actually has all that many shots that I don’t have: I’ve used the flip that puts the ball straight back over the wicket-keeper’s head, for example. So I think it’s not so much how he plays his innovative shots, technically, that interests me, as the times that he plays them and the way he has uses them to string such a good run of innings together at this level.

He’s obviously a very good player at the top of the order, full-stop, but then given time, he can innovate too. I suppose people might associate those sweeps and flicks and flip shots with batting against the spinners in the middle overs but in some ways it’s easier to play them when there’s pace on the ball in the early overs.

Did we feel as if South Africa were playing a different game to us on Thursday? Not really. They’re not invincible. Beforehand we had talked about the last time we had played them, last summer when we beat them 4-0: as a team, you can take confidence from those sort of series. Obviously they’re a strong side but on a different day I think we could have beaten them.

After we lost Kevin and we were 25/3, Owais and Paul got a bit of a partnership going but after that we struggled. It can happen. Some people have said that our shot selection might have been better but I think that’s unfair. The wicket was pretty slow and losing wickets regularly meant that new batsmen had to work out a way of moving the game on as soon as they came in. And the South Africans have two very good one-day spinners, in Botha and van der Merwe. And you don’t want to come in and start smashing it about straight away – but as it happened, every release-shot we tried didn’t come off. That can happen in Twenty20 cricket.

Wayne Parnell is turning out to be one of the bowlers of the tournament. I played against him for Middlesex against Kent early in the season. He doesn’t swing it or reverse it like Umar Gul. He just hits the deck hard: in some ways, nothing out of the ordinary, but he bowls those angles, left-arm over the wicket, which makes the difference.

We had a debrief after the game. The captain and the coach both spoke and then other players chipped in. Having not played, it’s difficult to give an opinion or make a valid point so I tend to keep quiet.

On Sunday, I’ll get to Lord’s about halfway through the second innings of the first game. Ireland are playing Sri Lanka so maybe a little bit earlier. I’ve been in touch with a couple of the Irish guys during the tournament. The captain William Porterfield, is my best mate and we went for dinner the night before the South Africa game. We’ve known each other since we were nine or ten – I played for Ireland under-13s when I was 10 and he was the captain.

William’s obviously with Gloucestershire, but most of the Irish team are still amateurs – they work all week and only play cricket on a Saturday, so that does give them a real passion about their cricket. To find themselves in the middle of this amazing tournament instead of working at their day jobs gives them a real drive: any ‘professional’ team that shows any weakness can come unstuck against that. I saw it when we lost to Holland – the sheer passion that the Associate countries can bring to a tournament like this. That’s how the upsets happen.

We’ve had a bad game, then a good game, then a bad game… so we’re due a good game again today against India. Everyone’s optimistic about the talent we have in the squad and our chances of getting things going again.

Previous entries

Losing to Netherlands, beating Pakistan

How and why I play those Twenty20 shots

Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99.

MOTM Swann inspires England to win inside three days

England beat West Indies by ten wickets at Lord’s, chasing down a target of 32 to win the first Test, shortly before the scheduled close of Day 3.

Graeme Swann, who took six wickets in the match as well as hitting an unbeaten 63, was named man of the match.

England bowled out West Indies for 256 this afternoon. After a delayed start due to rain, West Indies resumed on 39/2 this morning. By lunch they were 80/5 and, still 145 behind after following on, appeared heading for defeat sooner rather than later

Swann had dismissed the Windies rock Chanderpaul (4) cheaply for the second time in the match, emphasising the apparent hold he has over the West Indies’ six left-handers.

But with Brendan Nash (81) and Denesh Ramdin putting on 143 for the sixth wicket, England were made to work in the afternoon session. Stuart Broad broke the partnership, dismissing Ramdin on the verge of tea. Soon Nash, getting over-adventurous as he ran out of partners, fell to Broad too, caught in the deep by Cook.

West Indies had lost 2o wickets in less than 105 overs’ batting time in the match, a shabby performance in the light of their recent series win over England in warmer and more bat-friendly conditions

So Strauss and Flower’s new-look England start the season on a high. They were gifted momentum, first, by West Indies’ dropping six catches on the first day and then by a hapless batting performance.

Seeing England’s delight at beating one of the few teams ranked below their own No 6 place in the ICC table will not necessarily have the Aussies quaking. If England can’t beat West Indies in a home Test shortly after Easter, then they really should pack up and go home.

But at least, in the performances of Swann, Onions and Bopara, this England team have made a definite stride forwards; the grim aura of underachievement that surrounded the Vaughan-Harmison-Panesar-Moores axis over the last 12 months has, for the moment at least, been dispelled.

England’s Twenty20 squad: some pointers

Note: England squad has now been posted here

It’s never been entirely clear to me why cricket and football teams have to announce these big preliminary squads ages before a tournament. They’re allowed to bring new people in after they’ve done it, after all.

I guess it’s just another pre-publicity device, designed to put the event in the minds of the media and forcing them to write about it.

I seem to have fallen for it.

Anyway, as you must know, England are now the lowest-ranked Twenty20 team in the world – or would be, if the ICC kept rankings. They don’t, but I’ve got a calculator and six wins in 15 starts puts England below even the West Indies. They’ve used 42 players in those games, including eight wicket-keepers.

Brilliant.

Andy Flower recently hinted that England might need to bring in some specialists for the Twenty20. Common sense might suggest that, given the lack of a head coach, tomorrow’s squad will leave plenty of room for fudging, and will contain a few new faces, some T20 specialists, some youngsters untried at international level – and plenty of old lags too. 

The core players who have let everyone down for the last two or three years; the young T20 specialists; the old experts. England don’t need to decide which way to jump quite yet, so I expect their party of 30 to leave their options open, with representatives of all three groups..

Muggins here is going to name his own 30, based on my own outlandish ideas and my second-guessing of the selectors and their more conservative instincts. If I name all 30 correctly, feel free to send money.

The XI that got skittled for 121 v the Windies in March were: Bopara, Davies, KP, Shah, Collingwood, Strauss, Mascarenhas, Batty, Broad, Khan, Anderson.

In addition, Andrew Flintoff, Matt Prior and Steve Harmison played in the series-clinching ODI on Friday. First-choice spinner Graeme Swann was missing only through injury.

Adil Rashid has sat on the bench throughout the ODI series, but will surely stay in the squad. And there’s really no reason to leave out Ryan Sidebottom, despite his apparent decline in form and fitness since he started to come under the charge of England’s coaching team.

I haven’t seen too much of Amjad Khan – but what I have seen – maybe unfairly – does not make me feel he is a must, by any stretch.

Flintoff’s hat-trick at the death in the series-clinching ODI on Friday once again left no doubt that he should be the first man on the England team-sheet, whatever form of the game you’re talking about.

For Twenty20, Dimi Mascarenhas must be the second.

Looking at the XI who lost the last Twenty20, there’s four who might not rank in the country’s top 30 T20 players: Khan, Gareth Batty, Andrew Strauss and James Anderson. (Maybe I’m being unfair on Anderson: in that last ODI, he showed he can bowl yorkers at the death and he is one of the top two fielders in the side – but, despite his new acclaim as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year I still have him down as a bowler who can go for plenty.)

Will England have got their act together already, agreed with Strauss that he needs a rest ahead of the Ashes and got a ready-made replacement skipper in place? I kind of doubt it. So expect Strauss to be in the 30 and Anderson, but maybe not Batty.

New faces? Well, Graham Napier was belatedly given England recognition when he was called up for the Lions in New Zealand last month. As well as his famous clean-hitting, he bowls at 90mph – only two English players took more wickets in last year’s T20 Cup. It’s pretty shameful that he’s not had a look-in until now.

(The Alastair Cook selection ahead of Napier and Mascarenhas for Stanford still strikes me six months later as a resignation issue for all concerned: England selectors knowingly selecting a team that they surely know to be below-strength? And if they didn’t realise that it was below-strength by choosing Cook ahead of Napier, they should be sacked in any case. Anyone disagree?)

England should be considering a roster of young players from the Twenty20 Cup champions Middlesex. Dawid Malan hit a T20 hundred off Flintoff and Dominic Cork’s Lancashire attack last summer – and then top scored when Middlesex played England at Stanford. If those performances haven’t literally put him in the shop window, then… I’ll be very surprised. On paper at least Malan’s leg-spin offers the side another option, which will count in his favour with the selectors.

Steven Finn, Malan’s lanky fast-bowling team-mate likewise bowled well to England at Stanford, suggesting he has a big-match temperament as well as the ability to bowl 85mph yorkers at will – a decent skill when you’re 6ft7. Finn is also an improbably good fielder for such a tall man.

Will Steve Harmison be in the squad? This is almost a call that could decide England’s whole summer. One bowler who showed in last year’s domestic T20 that he can do everything Harmison used to – 90-plus pace, hostility, wicket-taking and the odd bout of complete failure of control – was Saj Mahmood. Harmison himself hasn’t been trusted in a T20 international for nearly three years, but we can still probably expect his inclusion in the 30, possibly to be excised when the final cut comes. 

Since falling out with Duncan Fletcher, Essex keeper James Foster has weirdly not had a look-in at England level. Foster averaged 36, had a strike rate of 140 during Essex’s run to last year’s T20 finals day. Given that Prior might be considered as a specialist batter, it’s possible that Foster will become a third wicket-keeper in the party.

The most successful opening partnership in domestic T20 are Joe Denly and Rob Key. The pair did not set the county championship alight last year nor the Lions’ tour of New Zealand yet it’s hard to see them not being selected for this Twenty20 party. Having led Kent to the Cup in 2007 and the runners-up spot – lost by a whisker – last year, Key is also a potential candidate for the captaincy alongside Dimitri Mascarenhas. 

Jonathan Trott was the top batter on the recent Lions tour and is widely seen as the next-in-line for England in all forms. He had a go in the T20 side back in 2007 and there’s no reason to suppose the selectors won’t see him in the top 30 players now. 

Luke Wright likewise who in his 16 ODIs has shown – admittedly sporadically – that he can do the business with both bat and ball – remember when he was called up to bowl the last over of that ODI in New Zealand, held his nerve and saved the game by only conceding six? Wright also hit a century on the Lions tour.

Yorkshire’s seaming all-rounder Tim Bresnan is another ODI alumni who may return. Picked too soon under Duncan Fletcher, he looked out of his depth in the 2006 ODI thrashing by Sri Lanka but has recovered well for Yorkshire. England need to stock up on those hard-to-get away medium pacers and Bresnan, still only 24, fits the bill.

Middlesex’s Tim Murtagh took more wickets than any other Englishman in last year’s T20. Swinging it at 80mph may not necessarily make Murtagh a candidate for the next Ashes tour – but the notion of seeing the T20 side as a feeder for the Test team is plain foolishness. If we think – as we should – that playing the World T20 in England in early-season should give English-style bowlers an advantage, then let’s pick some English-style bowlers. 

Surrey’s Saffer-born seamer Jade Dernbach, 23, was the leading one-day wicket-taker in the country last year and early-season reports suggest we should expect more of the same this year. He was part of the ECB’s fast bowling development camp in Florida before Christmas and being named as something of a wild card in the England 30 might give him extra incentive in the early season Friends Provident games.

Ahead of both of those will be Kabir Ali. He swings the ball at pace and despite the dark memories of his last spell in an England shirt – 0/72 off six v Sri Lanka at Leeds in 2006 – he gets wickets quicker than anyone in the county game. His strike-rate in his 14 ODIs – a wicket every 33 balls – is similar to Broad’s (32.7) and better than Anderson’s (37.5)

Spinners? Swann and Rashid will be in there – and maybe as many as three others. The three most successful spinners in the domestic game are all veterans. Nayan Doshi (30), Shaun Udal (40) and the recently-retired Ian Salisbury. 

Personally, I see zero merit in looking to ‘blood’ youngsters when you are trying to win a tournament. Pick Udal and let him bowl at the other end to Rashid. 

Will England have forgiven Samit Patel for getting too tubby over the winter? Tricky one. Being axed for being too fat is pretty embarrassing but he certainly offers plenty with bat and ball in T20, so I’d be tempted to pick him for the 30. Then again, I don’t know if he’s spent the time since his demotion in the gym or in the larder. 

There’s nothing to suggest that erstwhile New Botham Ian Blackwell is on the selectors’ radar – but he hit 1000 runs last year and has just signed for Durham, the champions, so it might be an inspired choice to name him in the 30, again to give him that extra incentive.

It’s never been entirely clear why Sussex’s Michael Yardy got the chop from the England ODI squad – his economy rate for his darted-in spinners was among the very best in the world, while playing in a team that was generally getting hammered. And he can offer options as a finisher with the bat, too.

Batsmen Andrew Strauss, Rob Key, Joe Denly, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Jonathan Trott, Dawid Malan, Graham Napier, Luke Wright

Keepers Matt Prior, Steven Davies, James Foster

All-rounders Andrew Flintoff, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Graeme Swann, Michael Yardy, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan 

Fast bowlers James Anderson, Steve Harmison, Steven Finn, Sajid Mahmood, Ryan Sidebottom, Kabir Ali, Tim Murtagh, Jade Dernbach

Spinners Shaun Udal

Alastair Cook: my 2008

“KP taking over was like a cold shower on a sticky day”
“Vaughany had been there for a long time and he was an unbelievable captain in terms of his achievement. But life moves on. That said, we should really have beaten South Africa at Edgbaston. It was only an unbelievable innings from Graeme Smith that condemned Vaughany. In terms of Test cricket, that innings was the best I’ve seen. It was 90/4 and South Africa managed to get 280/5. Smith played unbelievably well.
“You saw the emotion of Vaughany giving it up. You saw how hard it was. It shows the pressure he was under. The job just took its toll. And maybe sub-consciously we all felt that too. None of us was giving any less effort under Vaughany than we did under Kev. But sometimes it’s good to have a freshen up: if you’re hot and sticky and you have a cold shower… that’s kind of the feeling we had at the Brit Oval. We’d lost the series and Vaughany had gone, so we all decided it was a one-off Test, a new start and we had to win it. There was no point dwelling on what happened before. Under KP, it was new and it was exciting and it was different.”

“Getting picked for Stanford? Sometimes you get lucky.”
“Sometimes you get quite lucky in life. And you have to accept that. And the selectors have looked at the theory: last year England took a whole new side to the Twenty20 World Cup and it didn’t work. It’s about continuity. Sides take time to gel and the one-day squad had done so well against South Africa: everyone knew their roles and we were using Stanford as a warm-up for bigger things.
“Am I looking to develop my one-day game? It’s already happening. I was leading runscorer in the one-dayers in Sri Lanka last year and then again in New Zealand. The biggest challenge for me is to expand my game. It takes a while. You can’t just click your fingers and have one net and start smashing it everywhere and say, ‘Yeah, I’ve sorted it’. These are quite big things to try and change.” 


“You always feel you’re not far away from getting it right.”
“We were bowled out for 83 in Galle last December – but we did hold on for the draw, even if we were helped out by the rain. Then, getting bowled out for 110 and losing to New Zealand in our next Test in Hamilton in February… it was frustrating. You always feel you’re not far away from getting it right. The feeling after that Hamilton game was ‘Let’s prove them all wrong.’ And we won the next two Test matches and won the series. So there’s not much else you can say about that. In my opinion. It’s like a football team: if you lose one game and then win the next nine then it’s all okay.”


“KP is all about constant improvement”
“Experience helps you improve. I know my game has improved against spin. But then again I got 100 on my debut in India in 2006, so that improvement is quite hard to measure… It’s weird how you improve. It’s such a gradual thing. Take our batting coach Andy Flower – towards the end of his career he was probably playing his best cricket. But five years before that he had been No 1 in the world.
“And that’s Kev’s big thing as a captain. He’s like that as a player himself: keep improving, keep improving. There’s so many good batters out there waiting to take my place. And I don’t want that to happen. So you’re prepared to put in the extra hard yards. If I do get dropped, I’ll know it wasn’t because I went to a film premiere or whatever. I’d know I’d given it my all.”

“Winning in New Zealand was the highlight of the year”
“We proved people wrong after getting written off again. That night after winning the third Test in Napier was a very good night as a team. And then beating New Zealand at home too. Everyone will go, ‘Ah boring’ but there’s no better feeling than winning a Test series, after you’ve slogged your guts out for 15 or 20 days. It’s special, no matter who you beat. That’s the true feeling of success as a team.
“If you look at the statistics, not many sides win Test series in New Zealand. New Zealand have a very underrated attack. Yes, they didn’t have Shane Bond but they never gave you much to hit. We all found that. The only time we really broke that was in NZ when we were chasing and when we turned that Test round at Old Trafford. The NZ attack bowled very well at us: not relentless wicket-taking balls but they never gave you much to hit: Kyle Mills, Chris Martin and Jacob Oram – who has got the lowest economy rate in Test cricket – and obviously Vettori is an excellent spinner. So that was probably a surprise to me just how good they were.”

“We work like mad on our fielding”
“When I first started playing I dropped a few catches. But Peter Moores, being an ex-keeper, is an excellent catching coach. And I’ve made a massive effort. Our catching in the England side has improved a helluva lot. It’s one of Mooresy’s areas of expertise. Watch a warm-up and the amount of catching we do, not so much as a group but as individuals, especially now Richard Halsall has come in as our fielding coach. It’s just that little 0.1 per cent improvement every time you do something. Of course some catches stick just because it’s your day. But all that practice gives you the best chance of success.”

Alastair Cook’s autobiography, Starting Out: My Story So Far, published by Hodder and Stoughton, is in shops now