Test Match Special - Introducing... Sonny Baker

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Manchester Originals and Hampshire fast bowler Sonny Baker is set for an England debut after being called up for the squads to face South Africa and Ireland in September by head coach Brendon McCullum. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Baker discusses learning from Sir Jimmy Anderson at the Originals, his notebook full of analysis of batters he has bowled at, being a “fast-bowling nerd”, and why he’s such a big fan of bone broth.

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a fair exchange rate with no extra markups. Be smart. Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's Apply. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Hello, I'm Henry Moran. Welcome to the Test Match Special podcast. 22-year-old fast bowler, Sunny Baker, could be the next big thing and could be in line for an England debut. He's been called up for squads as part of England's Whiteball series

against South Africa and Ireland in September. He's impressed in the 100 this year for Manchester Originals as well, celebrating his England call up with a hat trick as his side beat Northern Superchargers at Old Trafford on Sunday. He's been sitting down for an in-depth interview with BBC cricket writer Matt Henry. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. So Sonny, I was going to start this talking about the 100,

but things have moved on since then. An England call up yesterday, where were you when you found out? How did you find out? I was actually at breakfast. Thankfully I'd got down a bit late, so I was one of the only ones there. But I got a call from an unknown number

and thinking I was going to be told that I'd won an iPad or something and I was going to probably lose a load of money on my account. Yeah, I heard, oh, hi, mate, it's Baz. I was originally a bit confused, and then clocked like, oh, oh, the Baz. Like, right, okay. And then he said, yeah, I want you to be involved in the South Africa one days in the Island T20 series. And I said to him, oh, I promise I'm normally more talkative than this.

I'm just a bit lost of words. And he was like, yeah, I've heard. So I'm not sure how to take that, but it was pretty surreal experience. And to be honest, I don't think it's all really sunk in yet. To be honest, it's a very, yeah, obviously a very special moment. But called my parents straight after. There's a coach from Somerset called Baz as well. So when I told my dad, oh, I've just spoken to Baz, he was like,

oh, what was he talking to you for? I was like, oh, no, Baz. So, yeah, it was very surreal experience. yeah very grateful did you tease the parents a little bit was that i've just spoken to baz dot dot dot and see whether they worked out what that meant absolutely no chance i was straight in dad well i actually don't call my dad dad calling bakes but i was like bakes you won't believe this i'm just i i think i've been called up for england um yeah that feels weird saying that out loud again but there we go i don't think that's going to change to be honest yeah so is it a surprise

i mean you've obviously done well this summer you got that england development contract last year you must have known that England were thinking about you but is it still a sense of surprise for it to have come this soon? I mean, yeah, I mean you never really want to presume that anything's going to happen, that's the thing and I try really hard to take stuff one step at time I know it's a massive cliche

and I always get quite a lot of chat from that for my mate so I always say one thing, one step at a time but I really do mean that. I don't want to start thinking of stuff ahead and, you know, as that mindset has shown, that stuff takes care of it. yourself when you just try and think about the now and, you know, just bowling with the next game and taking it bit by bit. That really, really does work. So to answer your question,

was I surprised? I was a little bit surprised. I didn't, I didn't really think about it, to be honest, because I was so focused on what we were doing in the meantime. So yes, short answer, yes. So the 100 then, how have you found it? It's obviously being your, well, can we call it a breakout tournament i don't know i don't know what you'd call it you nodding so i'll take it like a breakout tournament for you've done like so well in this few weeks how have you found it what's been the highlight so far oh it's been amazing uh obviously just to get playing opportunity makes a massive difference as that's shown this year uh you know hampshire have shown a lot of faith in me which has been awesome um similarly to england lions getting opportunity to play and

then again cat at manchester has been just speaking to me throughout the whole of the blast which has been amazing. I learnt so much tactically through him and obviously working with Pop as well at Hampshire and now Killer at Manchester has been awesome just to get that opportunity to play and I mean that's what this competition's for, isn't it? It's to give people a chance to go and tear it up

and that's what I've been trying to do. But it's been very surreal bowling at, as I say, with my notebooks and stuff. We were talking about it just before this. Writing notes on Steve Smith thinking, am I actually going to be opening the bowling at Steve Smith tomorrow? Really?

Like, is this really happening right now? I've seen the bloke play on TV. I don't know how many times. But, yeah, there we go. We'll come back to the notebook. Hold on to that. You opened, and you've mentioned this as well, opening with Jimmy Anderson,

you bowling from the Jimmy Anderson end. How has that relationship been so far? And how has that experience and how is your relationship with Jimmy a legend? Someone you must have grown up watching so much of. How has that been? First of all, what a statement that is. Open the bowling with Jimmy Anderson.

from the Jimmy Anderson End? I mean, that's, yeah, that says enough, doesn't it really? But yeah, Jimmy's been awesome, actually. I've been fairly conscious. I know I ask a lot of questions, so I've been trying to ease him into that and not just spray him straight away. But he's been really, really good with sharing information. And, yeah, I think I've done well not to bombard him, to be fair. I think I managed it pretty well. My temptation was, obviously, go straight in with thousands of questions, but I thought I'll be a bit more measured and take things bit by bit and more ask around specific stuff that comes up in the moment but yeah he's been he's been really good to talk to obviously talked about his prep and stuff

and you know longevity things how he's kept going and what's worked for him and he just says a lot of similar stuff that you've heard before but obviously just um exemplifies it really how did the first meeting girl the first time you met him were you nervous then yeah 100% to be honest it was just a load of small talk really i was really nervous i didn't want to i was expecting that he would have heard that i was going to ask him a lot of questions so i was trying to put the feelers out of like promise i'm not just going to spray you like i'm going to leave you to do your own thing as well i know you've got to play the game as well i'm not not here just to to spray you a load of questions i'm not another another interviewer like

i'm just here to chat and learn as we go but he's really has been fantastic and and you know, good guy. I've enjoyed it. Yeah. Where does this reputation come from then? This reputation that you ask a million questions as this, is it a fair one? Do you admit that it is a fair one? And have you always been like that? Oh, absolutely. I mean, yeah, it's a fair one. That's why I was concerned about it getting around is because I do ask a lot of questions. I think earlier on in my career, I was talking to pop about this yesterday. Actually, he's a bowling coach hampshire, obviously.

and we were saying how earlier on in my career like when I was at Brave I think I just asked not ask questions for the sake of asking them but I sort of didn't know what answers I was trying to get if that makes sense I would just ask things to try and collect all the information that I possibly could to think oh I might use this in the future whereas I think as I've learned a bit more I've probably got more specific with my questions so I I need to know this bit of information. Can we have a conversation about this specific topic and then try and work towards what answer I'm looking to get, if that makes sense?

But yeah, the reputation of asking questions is very much fair. So I'll put my hands up and say, yeah, fair enough, I don't mind. Would there be an example of when that sort of worked for you this summer? A question maybe you've asked and you've got an answer that has been, that you feel like you've taken into a game and's gone well? Wow, that's a great question. Obviously, there's lots of examples of tactical stuff. I mean, some of the conversations I've had with Kat as well, following games, for example, Essex obviously didn't go the way that we wanted it to.

They chased down a lot. I'm not exactly sure how many it was, but I think my first over went for 19, and actually bowled pretty well. Like, based on the plans we had analysis-wise, like, I was hitting. the green box so to speak like two balls top of fourth stump top of fifth stump but walt just cleared his front dog and slapped them over midwicket which was fairly humbling um but then cat said well i mean they were chasing nearly 200 mate like they were obviously going to come out of the blocks flying so i don't mind giving them one uh having one go at bowling the stock standard starting with the new ball, swing it around to corners, happy days.

But if you know a guy's going to come hard, you've got to have a plan in mind of what to do. And I think I was probably just a couple of balls late on that, or maybe one ball late on that, first ball's fine, good shot. Second ball, same area, another similar shot. You're like, okay, well, now I probably need to mix my pace or go to my yorker or do something different. And getting yourself ahead of the rate in the over

would always be a good thing so starting with your best ball of if I want a dot because I know they're going to come hard I might mix my pace straight away because that's the last thing people are going to expect if you're so many of those 91 hours

oh why is this 72 mile an hour off cutter about so yeah I think that was probably the biggest tactical learning is more what are they actually trying to look to do before you even start rather than waiting and being reactive so that was probably a good conversation I had with Cat specifically

but there'll be lots of different examples of that And that's just probably one I've come up off with the top of my head. Yeah. Was that spell against David Warner, those first ten balls, the most fun you've had this summer? Oh, I mean, similarly, pretty surreal. And, I mean, I can't really complain. As I said, he's been one of the best batters in the world for a long time. And, you know, to bowl like that and have the ball swing in that way, over the wicket, across him.

Yeah, pretty surreal. So, definitely. Was there much response? You, I sense for someone who likes to get in the battle with him. Was he giving anything back out there? I've never been in my giving David Warner any chat. He would take me down. Similarly to Johnny, I just leave him alone.

I know he's a guy who gets real fizzed up for the competition. And similarly, he has also been one of the best white ball batterers in the world for a long time. I've played in the IPL. I don't know how many times, both of them. So, you know, obviously a lot of respect there from someone who's not done a great deal yet. um so yeah dishing out chat's probably not the play i don't think just leave them to it um you know i don't mind having a smile on a joke like a bold couple down leg side at uh davy going pace off and then he said something along lines of oh i thought you're going to go three on the bump there

after a boulder yorker and it's like a dot ball or one i think and then i think i said oh yeah i thought i was two you know i thought i was worried i was going to go three wise on the bump again um but yeah they yeah they're guys who get fizzed up from competition so you know some people you're just better off leaving them alone and those two are probably in that category I'd say yeah the notebook then tell me tell me where did this start so this is you take note on every batter you first before you first them after your first them is that right how when did that start firstly and how has it how has it come along since then to be honest I think since I've started getting analysis on batters I've written it down I think probably part of that is just

revision from school you're used to writing stuff down and retaining information that way and then probably once it started becoming a bit of a routine it sort of built into well this is part of my prep now this is what I do I've got an analysis pack on guys from obviously the analysts we have but I'll also compare that like cross-reference it with the notes that I've already got on people if I've played them before or because often the analysis is the same thing because if batters drastically change their game over a two-year period that's a real good effort generally if guys are really strong hitting square they'll still be really strong hitting square because that's their strength right or power hit has hit a certain way obviously sometimes

people get better at certain things but then you just adapt the notes as you go but i've just found it's something that keeps me involved in the analysis stuff and really remember it enough that It's information that's on tap and not something that I'm battling and struggling to try and remember when I'm out there because that would be an absolute nightmare. If you're not really sure, oh, hang on a minute, was I meant to bowl wide or straight yorkers at this guy? And then you pick the wrong one because you weren't sure. You can't really justify that to yourself at the end of the game. Whereas if you're trying to bowl straight yorkers and you miss and you get it for six, you can live with that, especially if you know that's the percentage play. And yeah, similarly, I think probably while I was at Rocket.

the first year was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with what had Riaz but was of him and he was injured and I was realistically unlikely to play

but had just been pulled into if someone else gets injured give him a go why not type of thing I think and got the opportunity to ask him loads of questions

learned from him about reverse swing about death bowling plans fields ways he manages his body how much one of the things I've learned from him as well was trying to work out how far to go through the gears

I think barks and pop have really helped me understand what that actually meant when he was saying I don't think I understood that at the time for those, yeah, just other things like that that I write down on my note but got all sorts of different things plans for winters, training plans what I think I'm going to do with my time to try and use it most effectively

all sorts of stuff to be honest loads different things yeah we were using it for cards the other day as well so not the most efficient use of the notebook but it was um yeah it was good fun yeah and i think freddy flintov got when he was lion's coach for the winter had a bit of a word about it didn't he i think that you've said in an interview before it was not something he'd have used is that fair to say yeah well i'm not sure i wasn't around when uh when when fred was playing and doing his analysis his stuff but yeah i think he probably views the game slightly differently i mean he's probably changed now a little bit um like his planning of the the training camp we did in abdabia i know it's obviously with the rest of the group as well killer included in that scotty managing it really

well the s and c so obviously to plan something that diligently you that doesn't happen by accident it's a very deliberate process and i think fred deserves credit for his ability to do that it was probably the best training camp I've ever been a part of and some of the older experienced guys said similarly that was the best thing they've been a part of as well but yeah I think what was the quote he said we're very different characters or something like that which people were like oh I'm not sure quite how to take that

but I did ask him for clarification on that I think at the time and he was like oh I just meant by your notebook and stuff we're just so different it's really funny two different people going about it differently and I think he loves it seems to get on really well So no complaint to my end. Good. At the start of that Lions Tour, if we go back to the winter,

you'd obviously not played a professional first class game at that point. You played your first on that tour. Have there been additions? Exactly. That's how quickly things have changed. Were there additions that you've made to your notebook this summer, maybe something about playing in Red Bull Cricket, or maybe it's to bowling at Steve Smith or Johnny Bester in the 100?

Have there been a lot of additions you've made this summer and could you let us into any of the secret? that you might have done. I mean, to be fair, a lot of it isn't really a secret. It's just I've been talking a lot with Kyle Abbott about just being relentless and stingy and not allowing yourself to go for runs. I think there was a game where he bowled like 60 balls and 59 of them were dots in a row or something ridiculous like that.

And I was just lucky enough to be bowling at the other end. And when there's pressure like that, someone's bound to get some poles at some stage. he probably deserved them but i managed to pick up a few um and that was the that was the way of it just keeping being relentless trying about maidens uh you know four ds and tight leaves is pretty much the it's not a secret formula everyone knows how to do it it's just the doing it part that's really difficult um so i think it's probably more personal things around what what helps me be more accurate or what helps me get in the

mindset of being more accurate rather than feeling the need to search for a wicket and trusting the process and I don't think you can do that without having played. I think the biggest difference in the last year, to be honest,

has been having playing opportunity because it makes such a difference. Being able to learn things as you go, you can't really do that if you're not playing, I don't think. Or I didn't find that I, even with my notebook, even with asking thousands of questions, until you've actually done it and you can use something

as a point of reference, it's very difficult to have a real understanding of something. Like, I can understand something conceptually without actually bringing it into practice because you've not done it, you've not got a reference point. So I think the main thing is just having more reference points now and being able to have examples of, you know, Vinci Trusting Utobile, the first over of a T20, Vinci trust you to buy the last over of a T20 or the 19th

or when we need to wicket, we need to close up the pressure now and bowl you or being in a red ball situation where you know things have gone a bit flat

can you change a momentum of the game and who doesn't want to do that right sounds so fun sounds great like being given those opportunities is probably been the biggest difference I think

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Did not know that. I mean, yeah, Joffre was obviously was bowling the speed of light the other game against the Phoenix. I saw he was, I think there was like top 10 fastest balls. And then suddenly about 10 balls later, I think he had nine of the first. 10 fastest balls 93 point something and then gleece obviously at 94 the other day um so there's some guys cranking it up which is which is good fun but yeah i'm not not sure what's to take into that happy happy days happy with that everything about what's that one 140ks on 787ish i'm like that yeah that's i'll take that for sure because i know you've spoken in the past about like unashamedly

you and want to be the person who balls fast that is a big part of you and your thing as a fast is that fair? Oh, 100%. I mean, it's what I find fun about the game. The injuries I've had have almost given me clarity on that, I think. Having had a fair few, you know, obviously stress fractures in my back and stuff, it's somewhat part and parcel of the game, but still frustrating, nevertheless, when it does happen. Yeah, I mean, it's just what I find fun about it. It gave me that real clarity of, you know, do you want to be that guy who's bowling 80-mile-hour swingers, which obviously requires skill even still there's nothing easier or harder about it it's just not what i find fun i enjoy you know having people's gloves in front of their helmet and trying to blow their hobbs out

that's much more fun for me personally um that i obviously still have a great amount of respect for the skill in the game and you know i'm someone who tries to swing the ball a lot in the power play as well so um you know i just want to try and have both of those skills i don't see why you can't try and can't try and have both if you if you can give it a go why not have you always been able to bowl fast where did that where do you think it comes from um i think part of it is is obviously you have to have an an ability to bowl fast but a lot of it is probably the training i did a lot of stuff um i did some stuff with stephen jones early on um but i mean since i was 12 i was always decently quick um like i'm not going to deny that i wasn't suddenly from bowling real slow to to

to nowhere that was always probably my advantage i was a bit taller when i was younger i was like nearly six foot i think 15 or something like had a bit of a size advantage on people um and sort of thought that was going to wear off at some point a few people told me it was going to wear off actually um and then just sort of kept kept increasing pace as i went through and i think a big part of it is just having a real desire to bowl fast that makes a big difference i think um i actually got asked a question by uh one of the kids at the oval and he said oh have you got any advice on bowling fast and how how do you bowl so quick it was like well a lot of it is the real desire to want to bowl fast because it's hard right some days you're

going to go for runs and think god it's so much easier if i should bowl 70 mile an hour nibblers like oh i could know where it was going balls wouldn't get edged for four because there's not enough pace. The ball wouldn't be enough pace in the ball for people. We'd have to smack it for it to go to the boundary. And I'd go for a lot less and suddenly I wouldn't feel so rubbish about myself. But you also then wouldn't have those days where it starts reverse swinging and everyone's thinking, right, give this kid the ball. Let's go. It's all very exciting. People coming out the bar to watch like, oh, so, you know, it was trade off, isn't it? And one that I'm happy to make. I know that it's likely to come with more injuries. That's okay with me. I'm at peace with that.

you know i've had a few hopefully i'm due a bit of luck for a while touch wood touch wood um but yeah i mean i i'm i think a big part of that is a desire to to bowl fast and i think before gaiana was probably up there with the fastest i'd bowled um i can't remember what the speeds were they're decent i remember they're decent um that's a lot i can't remember what speeds were i just trying to do what is your tops what is the high i know you know this what is the highest speed you've been recorded at it was 148 it was the fastest I've been at I don't know why I've done why I lied just then

the yeah but I was doing a lot of training with a guy called Aaron Lewis in Australia power and pace cricket were really great they rehabbed me I wasn't really sure that I was going to get a contract

I had been told before I went to Australia this is before the line, the year before the lines I'm not really sure we're not sure whether we're going to offer you anything basically um you know i was rehabbing from a stress fracture it's meant to be a non-union uh which means the bone just won't heal at any stage it will stay correct forever basically um and then had a scan while i was over there after doing a load of rehab with him

and um obviously did some bits nutritionally as well which was great but the uh yeah the bone had healed and came back and felt in great nick and then carried on doing his drills and stuff i still do now um and i think that's probably played a big part in the ball speeds i've been able to get up to as well uh and i've probably noticed that as i've been playing more and you get less opportunity to train you gradually start dropping off a little bit um but whether that's just general systemic fatigue or or what i'm not sure but um yeah we'll see hoping to crank it up at some point in this tournament that's for sure is the science of fastballing something you've always been interested in is that like a bit of a fast-balling nerd to some extent without i can probably think of a

better way of phrasing it but you know what i mean yeah no no insult taken at all no offense taken the um yeah definitely i think i studied biology when i was younger i've always been interested in human performance and general uh things that because of my i was when i was injured originally i was trying to get into oxford unsuccessfully by the way for biology um but gave a decent crack and did a lot of extra reading and things and my main things were around human performance because I felt I got twice the bang for my buck

in that even if this all didn't work out I haven't just read a load of books on, you know, human development for the sake of reading them. I've read stuff on things I find interesting and human performance and diet and, you know, food science and general nutrition stuff, like what things I could get out of the reading. and you know fast bowling stuff thereafter has been

sorry it's been very similar I've always found Steph stuff really interesting he was obviously at Wellington college and I was at King so it's close enough and he's good enough he sent me a message actually after to say congratulations and obviously Aaron did as well and they were working together at one point I think they've gone their separate ways now which is cool

but yeah those guys have both definitely supported me probably Aaron slightly more hands-on but yeah still Steph stuff conceptually has always been really interesting to me even still i don't really understand all of it um i'm not going to claim i do because i haven't done a qualification with him having spoken to him a lot about it but uh yeah there's that's about the science of bowling yeah stephen jones is like ball speed sciencey stuff um i actually spent a bit of time with shabazz from speed camp as well um he does pace journal and stuff i'm sure you've heard of him he um yeah similarly talking to him about what his system his framework looks like

around assessing fast bowlers what does he do um he's given me a lot of nutritional advice which has been really do think has made a difference guy called pete malkasciano works with him what tweaks have you made have you made any specific tweaks that you've made yeah i mean all sorts of stuff it's just around optimizing things generally speaking uh a lot of it have you heard of bone broth it's quite it's gone a bit popular now actually um but it's what i think made a big difference to my healing in my back one of my mates actually um has been injured he plays for gloucester at the minute he's uh got a stress fracture who's talking to me about what i did nutritionally how i was doing uh you know obviously talked about just having a rough time of it as well i can fully empathise

with that and we're talking about bone broth and how it makes a bit of a difference um got a package actually from a juice company recently which is good um hoping to work with them a bit more moving forwards which will be exciting got a sponsorship with the butcher's at hampshire as well so nutritionally i've been so that's protein is it is that what is needed it's for the so many different things is that what it needs explain bone broth to me then bone broth it's just got so you basically put bones in boiling water the same as like a like a slow cooker you just basically dissolves the minerals out of the bone so you get collagen in there as well if you've got any marrow in or your chuck your root veg or whatever in there,

a bit of black pepper. And one, it tastes quite nice, but two, the nutrients you get from it are specific to bone healing because they've obviously all the minerals that have been drained out of bone. So just meant to help speed up that process. How often a day are you taking that in? Or how often in a week or whatever? I'll try and do it every day if I can. It's just obviously difficult with travel and stuff.

it makes it harder. Similarly with juices and other being on point with nutrition while you're travelling is very difficult but I try try where I can and you know you can live with it if you're doing if you're trying and you don't quite manage it then you can live with it but there's a restaurant called foe that does bone broth as well actually extra broth so my girlfriend was up having a something noodle soup from there and I was like oh great I'll just have a little extra bone broth thanks very much which is really good. It's obviously can't guarantee what they've put in it,

so it's always a bit like, oh, is it actually bone broth or is it just chicken meat broth? I don't really know, hoping it's bone broth, but, you know, if you do what you can, I suppose. There's some other packaged things you can get from bone broth and stuff. But yeah, that, and I think that's made quite a big difference to my nutrition, because touch word so far, actually I'm not going to say that, but I've been more fortunate with injuries related to spines.

since so who knows whether that plays a part or it's placebo even if it is placebo and effects effect right so i'm not going to stop doing it that's for sure as you've mentioned australia's like played quite a key part already in your career at the young stage being there the last two winters what have you learned about bowling there and you're probably guessing the question that may then come after this um yeah well i mean that'd be good fun on it but the The main thing around Australia would be there's pace and bounce, obviously. Tracks are harder, so it actually wasn't that much swing. Other than when I bowled like with a brand new ball, there wasn't that much swing.

But similarly bowling with the Cuckabar in the games here, you really notice a difference when the ball goes soft. So even when it's hard tracks, when the ball goes soft, it's tough. So it's either trying to be absolutely relentless with your line and have straighter fields and have guys caught in front or you know obviously still use your bouncer um actually i think fred was talking about the line at which you can bowl your bouncer once the i think you used the expression i'm not sure if it was fred but let's say it was it feels like the air's gone out of the ball type thing where it's like you're whacking it in and it's just going and looping over the batter to the keeper you're like oh mate come on please i promise that was 87 out hand it's not even making it to keeper like oh um especially especially on some of the wickets

we've played on in the cuckabar stuff here really notice that so it's more the line around your bumpers like if you're doing that and it's shoulder high on fifth stump guys are going to absolutely smack that over midwicket so it's pointless whereas if your leg side of guys like over their left shoulder you've got one chance of a glove to short leg another chance of a top edge on the way through sorry chance on the top edge on the way through then you've got a glove to short leg then you can almost get them on the way back through if it dies and glove again, they caught back up with it. So you give yourself more chance

and also you can control where the ball goes. So if I bought fifth stump, a guy could back away or try and guide it. If it's pace and bounce, they could try and take it down there. They could top edge it. It could go over the keeper. It could go anywhere.

Whereas if I'm keeping it on the left-hand side of their shoulder, obviously right and bat at left shoulder, I know the balls only realistically, if I'm over the wicket, going to go in that direction over towards maybe in front of square round back to fine leg so i can set a field for that and i have an idea of where it's going um so yeah i think just things like that and using using my wobble seamer i didn't really use wobble seam very much but in the games in australia i basically just learned it on the fly really it was like right i have to do something

with it because i can't swing it because the ball's not going to swing and sometimes to be honest another big learning is sometimes it's not your fault when the ball's not swinging like i used to probably because i've done so much work on my wrist get a bit annoyed and beat myself up a bit i'm like i've lost my wrist again i'm not swinging it's like well no mate the ball's just 40 over's old and wet like you're not going to swing that it's a rock don't bother just try and bowl wobble seam and if it hits the rope hits the rope great and if it doesn't just more important about where it's trying to do something from so if you're smacking it into channel fourth stomach odd length in ours bit of carry guys can back foot nick glove behind happy days tough

tough scoring shot back foot punch whereas here uh especially the utiliter has been more knee roll try and get people come forward and hit it straight because it's more likely to knit back stay low type thing than it will be blowing their gloves off and keep it taking it over the head that's for sure um so yeah i think it's just being a bit more being a bit more accurate with what skill you're trying to deliver. I think that's the main thing is where is the ball doing something from? Because, you know, even when the ball's not doing anything, Kyle Abbott can go at 0.0.0.1 and over, that's a great skill to have, right? Like, you can control the rate, the game's not going anywhere. And eventually, batters are going to go, right, I've had enough of this. I'm taking this guy

down. Oh, no, hit it straight up the shoot. Cheers. See you later, bud. And then you end up with fourth of next or nothing, like he has basically every game. So he's been exemplary with that. and if it is needed this winter the bowling in australia has there been a note made about steve smith from that experience bowling to and whatever it may be is there a note in the notebook that you may refer back on if it's needed i'll refer back to notes on any batters but um yeah i mean obviously steve smith is one of the red bull goats so it'd be definitely be coming back to that analysis if i end up using it but i mean let's just worry about the next few games first i think that's not

get too far ahead of ourselves. We've got a hundred to try and win and then a South Africa Series to try and win and then Ireland Series try and win way before we think about any of all of that stuff. But I do appreciate the question though. Well, that was Sunny Baker with Matt Henry there. Really fascinating to learn a little bit more about the tear away fast bowler. That's it for this episode of the TMS podcast. Make sure that you're subscribed so you never miss an episode, including things like the Nobles Cricket podcast with Kate Cray. Cross and World Cup winner Alex Hartley. The latest episode includes a fascinating interview

with the superstar Australian Elise Perry. Also look out on BBC Sounds for Tehr Lenders with Greg James, Sir Jimmy Anderson and Felix White, and also Stumped the World Service cricket program looking at the global game with Alison Mitchell, Charo Shama and Jim Maxwell. Thanks so much for listening. We'll speak to you again soon.

We are back with the Fantasy 606 podcast. Whoa, well, Chris, I've got to stop you there. We have changed our name this season to the FPL podcast from BBC Sports. All you need to do is search for FPL, and if you already subscribe to our podcast, you don't need to do anything at all. Chris, have a guess what the code to join. The BBC Sport League is. Was it 5E? It's BBC FPL.

Oh, yeah. Come and play the game with our own. as we continue to teach Chris about fantasy Premier League, the FBL podcast from BBC Sports. Listen on BBC Sounds. The following advertisement feature is presented by GoTurk. You're thinking about a holiday. We're at a detour across the Turkish Riviera.

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