Test Match Special - IPL Pod Ep 7: Fastest fifties, crazy climaxes and karaoke with Boult and Buttler

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Nikesh Rughani, Ravi Bopara and Steven Finn review a thrilling week at the Indian Premier League. Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring the quickest half century in IPL history, a brilliant hundred by Suryakumar Yadav and an incredible win for Sunrisers Hyderabad after the last ball had to be bowled again,They also discuss reports that Jofra Archer has been offered a full time deal by Mumbai Indians, celebrate record breaking spinners Rashid Khan and Yuzvendra Chahal and ask if the likes of Stokes, Root and Brook are having the best preparation for the English Test summer sitting on the sidelines in IndiaPlus Aatif Nawaz talks to one of the overseas stars of the IPL Trent Boult on being a freelance cricketer and doing karaoke with Jos Buttler

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Our club. Instead of buying a season ticket for a football club, you buy the football club. The bids to buy Manchester United are in, but that is only the tip of this iceberg. I'm Salih Nugent. I'm Simon Stone and I'm Faisal Islam and in our new podcast, How to Buy a Football Club, we'll be keeping you up to date in the battle to buy one of the biggest clubs in the world. Chaotic Manchester United, Manchester United, crisis. It's about politics, debt, diplomacy, geopolitical rivalries. And of course, who can bring silverware back to our How to buy a football club. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. I'm Nick Eshragani and welcome to the latest of our IPL podcast. This week will be joined by one of the overseas stars of the IPL, the New Zealand bowler Trent Bolt. It might be starting a trend in rejecting a contract with his country to concentrate on playing franchise cricket. We'll also be reflecting on another exciting week of action in the Indian Premier League. IPL Cricket on five sports extra.

Surakuma Yadav has 97 from 48 deliveries and the whole of the Wankar Day Stadium expects. He gets down, he sweeps it. He's got enough of it. Straight up over deep, backward, square leg for six runs. I love Sky on the banners. 103 from 49 deliveries, 114s and 6-6s. And the Rajasthan Royals have won a nail by four runs. Hold on.

I'm hearing the siren for no ball. Goodness me, he's overstepped. This is incredible. Here is Sharma, bowling to Samad. It's wide, it's drilled down the ground, out towards the long-on boundary, and he's done it. And the sunrises are won by four wickets in the most dramatic finish. You could ever wish to see.

Jaswell comes forward, drives through the offside for four. 50 runs from 13 balls. And they all rise inside the Rajasthan Royals dug out. He does the strong man pose. He's not a big figure. It's quite a slight build for the man out in the middle who raises his bat all around because 50 runs from 13 deliveries

is the fastest 50 in the history of the Indian Premier League. You can, of course, hear IPL coverage on five sports extra and BBC sounds, and I'm joined now by a member of our commentary team alongside me, former IPL and England all-rounder Ravi Bupara to discuss the latest talking points from the tournament. And let's start, Ravi, by looking at the tournament as a whole, because this season must be the most hotly contested ever. We've seen incredible matches this week. we've heard that amazing finish between Rajasthan and Sunrises

when Sandeep Sharma bowled no ball from the final ball of the match and Abdul Samad hit the free hit for a six to win the game. Have you ever been involved in anything like that, an exciting finish such as that? Even a no ball free hit off the last ball. I mean, I've been involved in some exciting finishes in games before. But I mean, if I think back to any game where we needed something like six to win and didn't get it

and then there was found out it was a no ball I don't think I've been involved in a game because one thing you make sure

you do as a bowler if someone needs maybe seven eight six whatever it's don't overstep that's what you want to make sure

you're not overstepping you're executing you know obviously you can't control your execution every time one thing you can control is not stepping

over the line and that's a that's a killer blow to step over the line last ball and then have to bowl it again and then get hit and lose the game. It's a killer blow as a bowler. You know, it can really damage your confidence going into the next game. It'll play in your mind. You know, the coach, you know, the coach is in the back of the mind thinking, you know, has he done that?

So those sort of things start playing on your minds. But, I mean, it's a tough one to take. I've been in some where there's been whites. You know, you needed four to win and someone's bowler wide. and then suddenly you need three to win. He's bought another wide and now two to win and you end up winning because you run a two of the last ball or something.

That's happened before but not a no ball then get hit for six the next one. I remember that T20 final. Do you remember that T20 final? It's a long time back now. I think Leicester might have been playing at that time and there was,

it might have been Leicester Nightingham. I can't remember 100%. The one over waist height? Wast High. Summit still goes on and on about that. Sammit Patel to me. Yeah. That was an oboe.

ball. And it wasn't given. It was a T20 blast way back. I can't remember the year now. And I remember watching that and I thinking, hold on, that's a no ball. Has that not been called? And it was just because they wanted to get the game done, I'm guessing. But, you know, that could have had a different result. And that's a trophy in the cabinet. Yeah, no DRS in those days, of course. But in terms of the IPL, so obviously that was an exciting finish to that game between Rajasthan and Sunrise. We've seen quite a lot of close games this season as always and you know sometimes after the first innings we say don't we that oh they should knock these off pretty easily but it's never quite that simple in the IPAs very rare that you see a

one-sided match and as we close into the playoffs that just shows in the table as well because virtually every team still has a chance of winning it do you think that's a good thing yeah I think it's brilliant when every team's still involved and got a chance to qualify for the final stages keeps everybody interested it keeps all the you know the devoted fans for each team interested. It keeps pretty much everyone who watches the competition, because everyone has their team, really, that they want to do well. Or if you're somebody that doesn't really have a team and generally just loves the game of T20 cricket and the IPL, it keeps you interested because you want to, you know, you want to see, you might be rooting for the, for the teams at the

bottom, you know, the underdogs. But it doesn't seem like there's a massive difference from top to bottom in teams this year, as in, I wouldn't say there's anyone who's an underdog. I mean, Delhi, the way Delhi started, you would have said, yeah, there are underdogs losing their first five games. But they've got a very good squad. They've got a squad that's capable of winning the IPL. And, you know, they certainly shouldn't have lost their first five games. You know, they're good enough team to come through that. But it's, I mean, it's great to see you.

The thing is, I know we're concentrating the IPL, but most T20 leagues around the world have close games. It's just, I do feel like it's hyped up a little bit. and it's IPO because it's India and everything. But every other league I've been to, all the games are pretty much close. There's, you know, nobody gets trumped or there's no team that dominates or and goes, you know, it's usually everyone's close.

Games are close. They all come down to, you know, a lot of the games come down to the last over. And I think that's the nature of T20 cricket because it's a short game. You're going to get a lot of close games. So I think it's brilliant. Yeah, and no real one outstanding team either.

Years gone by, we've seen the Mumbai, India, with their five IPL titles, Chennai Super Kings, usually always up there and it's kind of them to and the rest, but over the last few years, that certainly seems to have gone out of the window, especially with the mega auction as well

that we had before this particular season with massive squad changes across the board. But one man who's been a constant with his franchise over the last three years, he's only 21. Yoshashvi Jaisal, you can still listen to the podcast that he did with us on BBC TMS,

available on BBC. BBC Sounds, and he hit a 13-ball half-century against KKR, the fastest in IPL history, just one ball away from equalling the all-time record of Yuvraj Singh and Chris Gail from just 12 deliveries. 21 years old, he's had such a difficult journey to even become a professional cricketer with all the journeys that he made when he was 10 years old from Uttapradesh to Mumbai and lived in a tent, old Banipuris, did odd jobs, went to sleep hungry most nights, and eventually made it. What makes him so special?

Left hander at the top of the order. He's got all the shots in the book. Well, I think if at the age of 21, you can score a 50 or 13 balls in your premier T20 competition, there must be something about you, right? You must be able to play. And he's shown this year how good he is

and what he can possibly be because he's only going to get better from the age of 21. He should only get better and, you know, with experience. And it's funny. I mean, experience brings a lot to the table, you know, you get better as a player, but you probably stop scoring 50s or 13 balls, which is weird. I mean, when you're young and you've got nothing in your mind, I think you just swing the bat and things happen.

But as you get more experience, you know more about the game. You start to read the game. It's a weird way to describe it. It's what might happen over time is he might become more. consistent with experience because he'll know the game better he can read the game better he you know it's you sort of know what's going to happen when you've played enough you know what's going to happen next pretty much you don't always get it right but you give yourself what you always have a better chance because you've seen it so many times and generally patterns of play

repeat themselves so I mean he he'll get more consistent over time the fact that he scoring runs at this age and dominating at this age in their Premier League is a brilliant sign for him and it'll be great for him to go on to international honours and do well at that level as well because that's really where for him it's going to count is can he go on and do something on the international stage can you win a game for India on the international stage and he's one of these group of young players really taking the IPL by storm over the last few years. Do you think that's more the case now, these local players becoming big megastars in the IPL? Because when the IPL came about in 2008, it was about Shane Warren,

it was about Chris Gail, M. Estonia, Sondi, Sachin Duk, all these established star names coming towards the ends of their careers. They're already legends in international cricket. I think we see a lot more stars coming through locally now. And a lot of them haven't played international cricket, like Jaiswal, and like, you know, Rutheraj Gaiqwads played a very limited amount as well but the household names now yeah i think there's a fine line between your top international player and a very good domestic player i mean it's such such a fine line and it can easily be switched very quickly i mean that you know that guy who's a very good domestic player can easily become a very fine international player i mean that that's how fine the line is and i guess the i pio had to start

with all those big names because they had to get it off the floor um they had to make something of it they had to get people interested in the, you know, the way to get people interested is get the stars on board because that's what people want to come and watch. But I think the nature of T20 cricket and leagues is it does open doors and gives opportunity to pretty much anyone in domestic cricket to do well and become a household name just through franchise cricket. It's, it is possible. And that's the beauty of franchise cricket, the beauty of IPL, is that anybody can come

and do well. And it doesn't matter if you're 21 and you're just starting at your career or you're Rowett Sharma who's played 10, you know, all the IPO years. He can do just as well as Roet Sharma. There's nothing stopping him. And that is the best thing about this format of the game and franchise cricket. I think it's brilliant. It's open to anyone. You don't have to go through the processes and, you know, do well for your county and then go on and play for international. Franchise cricket brings you right to the front where people are watching. Millions are watching and you can make a name for yourself straight away. Franchise cricket, T20 cricket in particular as well. I mean, when it first came about, 2003, it was seen as a bit of fun on a Friday night. That was the kind of vibe that

was around. Oh, spinners will never survive in this. It's just a bit of fun. We'll go out and have a dash. It's become such a skillful game. How has it evolved over the years in front of your eyes? Because it's basically played out through your career. And how has it changed your game? You're right. It was called the Mickey Mouse game. I remember when it came out, you know, in England. I was still quite young then. I was only really starting out my career. So I grew up on a diet of four-day cricket, you know, Red Bull cricket where you had very good techniques and, you know, you had a solid forward defence and you know, bat time and all that sort of stuff. That's the diet I grew up on. And then this T20 stuff came and it was like, oh, you know, another competition in the calendar year. People weren't really. The senior players weren't really that interested. They were like Spicky Mouse. We'll get some of the youngsters in. We'll play some of the games, but we'll throw it over to the youngsters to fill that gap

because we want to save our legs for the main cricket, so to say. But as years went on, you started finding more people coming to the grounds to watch T20, and then all of a sudden it becomes more important because now you're getting more ticket sales, you're getting making more revenue. the counties are making more money through Tijuana cricket, right, hold on guys winter's a bit more serious the senior players are got to play it

you know, our stars in our counties are got to play it so then you get the senior guys that are on board and then all of a sudden five, six years into it it's one of the main competitions it's like proper if you've got finals days

you've got all this sort of stuff happening and then other India jump on board with the IPO in 2008 You know, and then it suddenly becomes massive. And in terms of techniques and the way it's evolved, I mean, for me, it's, it took me time. It took me time because from a young age, I grew up on one diet of, you know, Red Bull Cricket and batting time and all that sort of stuff. It took a long time for me to accept that batting short time is actually okay. It's still, you can still be successful.

batting 20 balls, which, you know, was hard to accept. But now, even now, the amount of things have developed through T20 cricket, it's opening my eyes to so many things like little things, learning new deliveries, holding the ball in different ways, you know, which you would never do if T20 wasn't around. You just wouldn't. You wouldn't think, well, because you wouldn't think, how am I going to survive in this? How am I going to excel in this game? Doing the same thing over and over again, eventually what you do has a sell-by date and you have to change and you've got to continue to evolve as a player. So you start bowling, you know, as a bowl. I'm speaking as a bowler now and I'll say a little bit about batting as well. You know, you'll learn something

that deceives a batsman. So, you know, I started with the back of the hand slowball. You know, it was hitting the side net when I first started and I was thinking, but I need it. I'm going to have to learn it. And it took a little bit of time. to learn it. And then I thought, okay, well, am I confident enough to bowl it in a game, to try it in a game, successful? Then it became my main delivery. And it, you know, that delivery carried me for so many years.

And then, you know, that delivery no longer is as effective as it used to be. And then I thought, well, I've got to learn something new now. So then I developed a knuckleball. That becomes, you know, like a ball that's very, very effective. Then split finger, then you, you know, all those things. Then you think, okay, well, I need to. to, what can I do? Can I swing the ball?

Can I do this? Can I do that? So all those things are come in, which I think if I was just playing red ball cricket, I'd just try to the same thing over and over against. Red ball cricket is almost a repetitive thing. You know, you do this. You do one thing often enough.

You get success in Red Bull cricket. Batting in T20 cricket. Like just yesterday, for example, I was on the machine yesterday. I was hitting loads of balls. You're batting for hours yesterday. My hands are sore, by the way. Different grips.

Holding the batting. different ways. That's one thing I think a lot of people don't open their eyes to is, is that you can hold the bat in different ways to get different results. You know, you can have a weak top hand, strong top hand, weak bottom hand, strong top hand, all those things. And you can hit the ball in different areas according to how you hold the bat or make it easier. Other parts of the ground are accessible depending on your grip. Just as something as small as that. All those little things are crazy. If you stance, where your weight is in your stance might help you hit in a certain, you hit certain deliveries and, you know, the

direction of your feet, everything. I mean, it's just, I know it's minute and people will say, well, that's getting too technical. But it's okay to get that far technical because you've got to evolve the game, right? If you keep evolving, you'll get better and the game gets better as a result. So you need those people. You need those people who are going to innovate and try new things and do crazy things to to make their game better and then as a result, other people will learn off it and they'll do it

and then they will evolve it and keep moving. So it's been a brilliant, brilliant journey, I think, T20 cricket for me. IPL cricket on five sports extra. Rashid Khan has become the leading wicket taker in this year's IPL and I've got two of his teammates here from Sussex, Ravi Bapara and Stephen Finn with me. Guys, let's start with you, Finney.

What makes Rashid Khan so special? Well, I think quite simply his ability to be able to bowl the pace that he does and spin it both ways when you're looking at it as pure bowling skills. It's those things that make him very, very tricky to hit. I think the fact that he's a competitor, he enjoys bowling the hardovers. You see him bowling the power play and the death quite regularly, which is rare for a spinner. So he enjoys the competitiveness of those situations. but you put all of that together in a package

and he really is an outstanding bowler and he reads conditions as well he doesn't just bowl the same all the time he can change his pace he can change his line but he certainly has been an outstanding bowler and deserves the purple cap and Ravi what's he like as a teammate

both on and off the field he's brilliant really on the field he's a fighter he wants to be part of the action and wants to win you know set his bowling aside you know Finney's describe exactly why he's such a good bowler.

You know, the fact that he can turn the ball both ways and it's so hard to read. That's basically it, really. And off the field, he's quite caring, very good, loves his food, loves a bit of cooking and all that sort of stuff. So, I mean, he's great to have around in your team. I think he gives your team a massive lift, just having him in the squad, or obviously in your 11.

And he's obviously one of the stars of the T20 game globally. Another man who's been making waves in T20 cricket recently in the last couple of years making his India debut, of course. Been a star for the Mumbai Indians for quite a few years. Surikumar Yadav hitting some form again this season. Can you imagine what it would be like to bowl to him, Finney? No, and I'm quite glad I'll probably never have to experience that unless he comes across and plays domestic cricket over here at some stage in the next few years. But certainly the way that it's not just brute strength, I think you look at T20 batters sometimes and you think, it's brute strength and power.

That's why he's powering it over the ropes. But it's real craft what he does. His ability to be able to manipulate where he hits the ball, his ability to anticipate what the bowler is going to bowl. And then the fact that he can just get so much power all around the ground, it's not just one place that he hits his sixes. It's everywhere in the ground that he hits his sixes, apart from midon,

which my captain colleague Ravi Bavara picked up on in his latest innings. Yeah, and Ravi, we were talking. about that actually when he scored his hundred of course he's got that century this season he's got several half centuries and other contributions as well for the Mumbai Indians he's getting himself back into some form

he was woefully out of form in the Indian ODI side why do you think it hasn't worked for him in 50 over cricket is there any reason it shouldn't no there's no reason why it shouldn't I mean he can approach that 50 over game just like he does in T20 if he wants to there's nothing stopping him really

it just seems like he's if he goes with that mindset, he might actually be successful. But I think the biggest test for him, because he is all craft, the way he does it, it's not brute strength. His biggest test is going to come outside the subcontinent. Are those balls going to go for four and six in other parts of the world? Those are going to be the true tests, really, with a bit more bounce,

what's going to happen, a bit more stick in the wicket, all those sorts of things. In India, we know the ball just slides onto the bat. It's a batsman's game in India. The question is going to be really for him is can he score outside of India, outside the subcontinent really? And that's going to be the biggest test for him. And I think he's good enough.

He's very skillful. He's a master craftsman of batting, which should put him in a good place to score runs all over the world. IPL cricket on five sports extra. We'll have more from Ravi Bupara and Trent Bolt joins us on the podcast to talk about his carry. duet with Josh Butler.

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IPL Cricket on five sports extra. And one thing that certainly has evolved in T20 cricket is the effectiveness of spinners, particularly wrist spinners. You just look at the all-time top wicket-takers in the IPL and there's so many spinners in that list. Right at the top, though, now, Yuzvendra Chahel with his leg spin and his googlys. He's now the official leading wicket-taker in the IPL.

He's gone past Dwayne Bravo, who's in second place. the only seamer in the top five, actually. How special is Yuzi Jahel? I think he's a quality bowl. I mean, I've always loved watching him and seeing the way he operates. And he's very clever the way he operates. I mean, if you know your cricket

and you're sitting and watching him, you think, ah, that's clever, what he's done. The way he throws a ball wide outside off stump, you know, he throws it slow and outside of stunt. So you haven't got any pace to work with. The ball's away from your body. You're reaching for it. it's turning away from you as well and having to reach and hit that for six or a boundary is not easy

there's not pace on it you know you've got to be strong and you've got to have a very good reach the fact that he can turn the ball both ways so there's that doubt in your mind as well so he's been quality through the years i think i just look back just remember he was one of the first really to throw the ball wide as a spinner you know slow and wide not many people did that he was probably I reckon the reason why he was one of the first to do it was because he played at Bangalore. And Bangalore's small, very good wicket, very hard to survive as a bowler there.

So he had to come up with something. Because if he kept bowling the same stuff, he was going to go at Tananova. So he'd come up with something new, which I'm sure there was someone before him that did it. He might have learned from it, but he took it to the next level. He became very accurate with it,

which was brilliant to see. And he deserves all the wickets he's got. Spinners are. effective in this game. Maybe they should bowl a little bit more at the death. Maybe. We have seen a little bit of that in this season's IPL. Varan Jakravati being a prime example for the KKR a couple of matches ago.

Right, we'll hear later on in this episode from Trent Bolt, who says he still wants to play for New Zealand in the World Cup, although he's rejected his central contract and appears to meet making franchise cricket a priority. Well, this week, there's a story, Ravi, that your Sussex teammate, Joffra Archer, may be offered a full-time deal by the Mumbai Indians. He's had a lot of injuries. He's currently away from the IPL. Having picked up that knock, he's been replaced by Chris Jordan there.

I mean, what do you make of that? And is he going to be the first of many? This is the subjects, isn't it? I mean, it seems like it's happening. You know, there's no smoke without fire. So it is, there is something going on. And can you blame Trent Bolt, really? your cricket career has a time span, right? You have a limited time in your cricket career. A, yes, you want to enjoy it. Yes, you want to represent your country and get to the highest level as a cricketer, as your goal and your achievements. On the other hand, it also pays your bills. It pays for your dinner, your family and your future. Because as a cricketer, when you start young, you don't learn anything else. That's all you know.

So when you, a lot of cricketers, when they come out of their careers, they don't really know what to do. You know, there's not much on the table for them and they get lost, really. So you also got to make, hey, while the sun shines, you've got to earn as much as you can because you don't know what's going to. It's not a job for life. You are not going to be a cricketer until you're 65. So you've got to make up for all those years. So can you blame someone like Trent Bowler who's probably not being paid that much by New Zealand board, to be fair, and he's at a time in his career where he's achieved international

honours, done well in international cricket. What more has he got to achieve with New Zealand? Probably not a lot. And he's going to get offers all over the world in franchise cricket, left arms, fast bowler, swings it, he's got brilliant history, and he's going to get paid a lot of money to go around and play these leagues. I mean, of course you would. It makes sense. And speaking about Joffra, he's at a stage as well. I mean, with injuries and all this stuff, can he play the long format? That's going to be a question for him. Only he knows that.

Only he knows that. Can he play the long format and have a long career in test cricket? I think he's going to give the Ashes a go and see how he comes out of the Ashes. I think it would be brilliant for England for him to be available for that. And I'm pretty sure there is an offer on the table for him. on that year round sort of thing and it will be a lot of money and that's someone who can preserve his body and earn a lot of money throughout the year playing just a few leagues I mean the game's changed man I thought the generation before me missed out now my generation you feel like has

missed out on these when these boys finish they'll feel like they've missed out because it will keep moving and it will keep one thing sport always keeps moving It keeps moving more and more money keeps coming into it and it's crazy really and look you have to make haywire the sunshine it's just one of those things we spoke about the ashes there as well

and Joffre's potential ambition to play in this summer series fitness of course is one of the issues that will be a concern but if he's fit you can imagine England will make most use of that this summer the first test against Ireland before that though is just three weeks away.

And Joe Root is out in the IPL. He's played a couple of games. He's bowled two overs. Hasn't batted yet in those two games. It doesn't need it to bat. Harry Brooks been dropped by the sunrises despite that 100, but, you know, string of low scores after that. Ben Stokes is on the sidelines for Chennai with his knee concerns.

Mark Wood had come home for family reasons, but he was left out as well after a good start for Lucknow. Not really ideal preparation for the test summer. Or does that matter, Ravi? I mean, how hard is it from your experience? experience as well, going from the IPL to playing into an English summer, especially if you've not been that involved on the playing side out in India. The question will be how long do they have to prepare after the IPL for the ashes? One thing they can be doing while they're in the

IPL, which is possible, is practicing Red Bull cricket. I know the conditions ain't the same because they're not batting on English wickets, but you can still train your Red ball, your Red Bull technique and, you know, how you're going to play test cricket. You can do the both. You just have to spend more time out on the training ground, and that's fine. I mean, successful creators will do that. I've seen Kane Williamson doing it during the IPO. He wasn't playing.

I remember in 2015 playing for Sunrisers, Kane Williamson wasn't in the 11, and he didn't look like getting in the 11. So he was just practicing a test cricket because he felt like I'm not going to play. So Mayers have practiced. test cricket and he was practicing test cricket and he went from the IPO he went straight into test cricket and scored a lot of runs and I remember it clearly so it can be done the only issue is the ones who have got injuries they not got there's nothing you can do if you got an injury or if

you're suffering with injury and you're sort of sitting on the sidelines you're sort of dabbling in and out that's a tough bit because then you don't go into the into the test match 100% what about somebody like a harry brook though he was flying when he started the IPL after an incredible winter with England, scored that 100 for the sunrises quite early on as well, off 55 balls and then a string of low scores, as I say, could that knock his confidence ahead of the English summer? I don't think it should knock his confidence in the test arena because T20 is a completely different game and you're going to get low scores. He's still got a lot to prove in T20 cricket. It's not something that he's, I would say he's 100% established yet and it's

showed in this in this rpo i think he's a brilliant player and he's got a bright future i think he's going to be you know it could be one of england's best but he's got a long way to go in t20 cricket he probably knows that as well um but he is good enough to be to be the best um will it knock his confidence in test cricket it shouldn't it shouldn't the amount of runs he scored and and he's forming test cricket in pakistan was brilliant and he should go into those test matches feeling confident um that he's going to get runs and there's no reason for him to be taking a backward step. IPL cricket on five sports extra.

So as promised, we can hear now from one of the overseas stars of the IPL. New Zealander Trent Bolt has been playing in the tournament for eight years representing five different IPL sides. And as we've been discussing with the debate over more players perhaps considering giving up international cricket to play more franchise leagues, Bolt could be a trendsetter. Bolt hasn't retired from New Zealand but he rejected a central contract in August

saying he wanted to spend more time with his family and increase his availability for T20 leagues. Bolt has made another significant impact in this IPL as a wicket-taker at the start of an innings. He's playing his second season with the Rajasthan Royals and Bolt has been speaking to Atif Nawaz. Had some good memories last year. Obviously getting all the way to the final

and getting upset in the final was a bit of a tough one but yeah it was a great team and it's obviously also going to be back this year with pretty familiar faces an exciting squad again and yeah we started off very very nicely and we've had a little bit of a couple of struggles over the last few games but um very excited to head into the business end of this tournament absolutely and you know what's different i guess is you getting to play in front of those home fans as well which for rajasthan would be in jeb or i mean what's that been like playing in jeb or it's so intense the support that comes from the crowd just the numbers and the sound and the stadiums it must be quite something yeah i'll tell you obviously moving through COVID and

the bubbles that we've been in that's been a refreshing change to get on the road and you know play teams at the home venues and obviously come back to our home ground and play in front of very passionate supporters you know it's the best part about the IPL has seen the crowds and all the passion that's involved from all the supporters and yeah and there's such a beautiful place It's been cool to move around and change the scene a little bit. But like what's been your favorite city? I mean, other than, I feel like you might feel compelled to say Jepur, because that's the home team right now. But what's been your favorite part of India that you've seen during the IPL?

It's always exciting in the IPL to come up against the Bangalores, Chinnaswami, obviously go to One Kitty, play against Mumbai, you know, all the passion around all those stadiums is, and the history is very exciting. So those have been two standouts. I feel like I've been watching you take wickets for, like, most of my adult life for a threat like i mean you've been so consistent for such a long time you know so many wickets across so many different formats and there's no sign of sort of letting up like even this season you know amongst the top wicket takers again uh like i mean what do you attribute your own consistency to well first of all i've been pretty lucky um

to get the opportunities that i have you know a wee while ago i was just a young kid from new zealand that i felt like i had a pretty good world cup in 2015 and that's where i gained my first IPL contract post that World Cup and yeah I'm into my ninth year as a as an IPL cricketer and yeah it's just been lucky to have some some good opportunities ahead of me and managed to take some of them yeah and with my bowling I guess it's yeah a pretty simple kind of aspect as to open the bowling push the ball up and use the swing that I get and you know some days have been better than others but I've definitely been enjoying my role here with the Rajasthan Royals and starting up in the power play and doing my thing and it's

It's, yeah, long-back and can continue, obviously. Absolutely. I mean, terrifying for opening batters, particularly right-handers, but even more so camera operators. Sometimes when you're batting in the match against the Gujarat Titans, you nearly took out a cameraman, Trent. What was that about? Yeah, the cameraman was probably counting himself

pretty unlucky to get hit by six from my bat. But it's one role I do not enjoy at the Rajasthan Royals. And anyone that knows me knows that I'm not a huge fan of putting on pads and yeah I'm a what I call a trademark number 11 but somehow I've been given the responsibility as a number eight kind of number nine in an IPL team it's uh it's been a bit daunting but um I've managed to connect on a couple of sixes so it's been good fun yeah I mean you absolutely have and I get the feeling there's a few more coming out of that but as this season goes on now like while you're at the Rajasthan Royals I know you've been other teams before but like you know at the Rajasthan

royals there's like you know it's hard to think about the Rajasthan royals without thinking about you know the legendary late great shane warren like is his legacy still prevalent in that team do people still talk about him um is that influence sort of still embedded in that yeah i think well you know he's trademarked as the first world obviously the history that is it's coming with him uh with his connection to the franchise there's still photos of him around the hotel you know he's spoken a lot about last year uh obviously when when those things happened and yeah there's a bit of emotion there and you know wanting to play for a guy that is you know so famous around the world for what he's done with the cricket ball and he's a big part of

his family still and i know a lot of guys enjoy performing and playing for him so of course he always be part of this franchise and you know he's still dearly missed to date so it's a it's a big loss that's for sure and what's the team camaraderie like in the in the dressing room of the rajasthan royals is it i mean it looks great i've seen some wonderful videos of uh of you guys on social media doing some fun stuff together including uh you belting out a wonderful version of Angels by Robbie Williams alongside Joss Butler. That looked like a lot of fun. Was it as fun as it looked like a lot of fun. Was it as it look? Well, first of all, it wasn't my song selection. So I don't

take me for it but yeah of course those things are always going to creep onto social media and you know get belted out across the world but yeah I think that's an important part of an IPL franchise is how you connect off the field and the culture that is I suppose kind of growing and yeah it's you know it's a eight to ten week tournament that you know there's a lot of cricket played in that time and they're big squads so you've got to kind of keep the guys together and keep them upbeat and I suppose that's what really counts when the you know the crunch gets going so yeah we've had some good times and some good friends in the side there's obviously multicultural kind of different countries going on and a lot of experienced cricketers so it's a

great balance what would you pick if you were picking the song for karaoke i was going to hit out amy winehouse valerie but just quickly uh threw that away said he couldn't yeah couldn't didn't work with his range i think he said but um yeah we just went to the trade mate roby william so maybe next time valerie is great classic i mean i think you i think you had the better choice there of the of the pair of you with the greatest of respect to Robbie Williams of course is it true Trent that you like everywhere you travel particularly for tournaments you take with you a guitar that has been signed by Ed Sharon is that true I've got a guitar signed by each year in use but I don't have that one with me now I

always carry a guitar definitely you can imagine you know 17 hours in a room every day by yourself it's pretty limited what you can do so practice a few songs or two but yeah just a travel guitar that comes and it's always handy when you have a few beers up at the game or got a couple of days off to unwind and yeah it's a good release you're going to be traveling a lot this year obviously and it's a busy year for india as well so i mean obviously there's a the iPL it's a very long tournament you're there for quite a long time um there's a world cup coming up there as well what do you think like how important is it to get that experience in in india not just for yourself but sort of all the players that are there that are potentially going to participate in the world

a little bit later this year just ahead of the tournament to see all those grounds to travel across the country to play on those surfaces it's going to give you a huge sort of edge isn't it yeah 100% I think the Indian conditions are obviously foreign to us as New Zealanders and probably as an English player or South African there obviously is going to be some differences as well but I've been coming in India since 2007 since I was 18 years old and now you know 15 or so years later one thing is you can never master the conditions they're always different every time you come you're facing some sort of adversity and you know expecting a wicket to have a bit of swing and pace can quickly become a wicket that you're playing through four spinners on so yeah the experience of understanding the conditions is going to be huge but equally the importance of having the weaponry or i suppose the attack in your arsenal is going to be a big one as well so yeah obviously i've made my decisions over the last kind of a few months of stepping away from international cricket in all respect and yeah i've still got a huge desire to come here and try to lift an idea

world cup and a few months time and hopefully the cards fall nicely and that all works out but i definitely feel like i've got a lot to offer there and obviously you mentioned it yourself i mean you've had some excellent world cups just from a personal point of view some great performances you know and the team obviously new zealand have gone almost all the way uh you've got the you know the hat tricks and all that stuff to lead to to to think back to let me paint a picture for you friend, okay? It's the Narendra Modi Stadium, 120,000 people there. You're on, you, you've bowled two balls, two wickets, you've got your hat-trick ball. It's the final of the World Cup. Who is the player you'd like to be bowling at from which team? Suria Kumayeta from India. Why I say that is

he's a very good friend of mine and, yeah, I've had the laugh over him over a couple of years of somehow getting him out in most games. Yeah, I don't know if that will ever happen. I've bought two balls in a World Cup final and already on a hatchery. but if that does happen, I'll look back to this moment ago. That was pretty crazy. But it's a wee while away. There's going to be some good cricket played, and there's some phenomenal ODIIs sides around the world,

so it's going to be a big tournament. Yeah, if it's going to be Surrey-comariadav, then, you know, Rohit Chairman Barack Kohli, you better be careful because they're going to come ahead of him, presumably. But, yeah, as you say, it's a little while away. Right now, the IPL is still ongoing. It is a long old slog as well, the IPL now. Big sort of tournament, 10 teams.

very long games as well it must be physically just quite grueling yeah it can be you can kind of burn the candle with both ends in a way if you're playing a lot of cricket and you're sitting in your room kind of waiting for the game to happen the next time yeah you're a long way from home yeah like you said the games are long you've got timeouts every two or three minutes and you've got super subs coming in and out and yeah the games are somehow lasting over four hours which is which can be can be tough but I think the IPL is any bigger I think I'm not sure if there'd be more teams but I think everyone will start to be playing everyone twice, home and away.

You know, we could see the IPL, you know, touching the likes of the EPL going on for a few months because it's that popular. So many people watching the games are so good. The games this year, every game has been a cracker, really. So it's a great product. So it's going to be interesting and see how that happens. Yeah, it's grown exponentially,

as is the influence of the IPL team owners around the world as well. I mean, I don't know if you followed the news that's come out recently about, you know, the sort of idea that, players would sign to a ownership group and play for like four or five different teams across the year for the same franchise like like for my indians for example they've got uh the bomb by indians they've got new york and they've got um cape town and they've got you know various teams around the world what did you make of that do you think cricket will go in that direction i think it could yeah what that does to international cricket is going to be interesting first of all i would have said it was a wee while away but it seems to be happening very quickly now so i saw a couple articles i don't know if they were real or not they had been approaching players and, you know, certain figures were thrown around. But, yeah, the franchise cricket is so well followed. There's a lot of money in it. It's a great product.

People want to invest. People want to watch it. It's going to be very interesting. So it's a hard one to comment on yet without anything happening with so many IDs up in the world. But I could see you going that way, definitely. Just to close off on this year's tournament, Trent. I mean, Rajasthan, doing pretty well in the top part of the tournament. What are your hopes?

What are things you'd like to sort of improve upon? what are things you're already pleased with? We started off very well. You know, as you do, you plateau in certain parts of the tournament and you only, you know, quickly a couple of bad results away from being quite far down the points table. And obviously everyone's playing such good cricket as well. So just trying to find a bit of momentum.

I think this game is so important when it comes to getting on a bit of a role. You don't want to do it too early, but it's probably a good time to peak now and push hard and hopefully carry a bit of rhythm and a bit of momentum into some finals cricket. And yeah, we're going to play well over the next couple of games and just see how it unfolds. And if you had to back one of your teammates, I mean, you can't see yourself and you can't say Josh Butler, but one of your teammates to become sort of, I know you actually have impact players nowadays,

but like the impact player of your team that's going to carry you through to that final, maybe through to that trophy, who is it going to be? Pretty easy one for me. You've got a young kid called Yesh. It should be Jaiswell, who's 21 years old and absolutely creaming them at the top of the earnings there with the opening batting position and he's going to be

an exciting one to watch I've played with a lot of cricketers and I've probably even played with someone who wants it as badly as that kid does so he's going to be an exciting one for the future so hopefully he's still got a lot to offer for us

in this season. Yeah, we've had a chat with him this season already at Yashabit which you can also hear on the BBC Sport website. Yeah, I mean, he's a phenomenal talent and when you see all these players and these young players around you

that it's quite frightening in a way isn't it, the depth of Indian cricket right now? It is, but it is amazing. You know, these guys come out every year and you go, where is this guy come from? Obviously, he's been a part of the Roger Stum Royals for a few years now, but, you know, the good players take their game to the next level of each season, and I feel that's something that this guy's been doing,

and, you know, it's deserving all the accolades and the recognition he's getting at the moment, because he's a class player. IPL cricket on five sports extra. That was Trent Bolt talking about your shast feet, Jafal, with Artif Noirz. And remember, you can still hear my interview with Jay Swal on the last IPL podcast on BBC Sounds.

And you can hear more IPL commentary on five sports extra as well as every county match live on the BBC Sport website and app. And look out for more podcasts on BBC Sound, including the latest episode of From the Ashes, this week featuring Australia's Sarah Elliott, stumped with a very interesting interview with the chair of the Brakistan cricket board Najam Sethi and two-part Taylender's special with,

special guest, the Rajasthan owner, Manoj Badale, and the award-winning No Balls with Alex Hartley and Kate Cross. Why is it called a smart speaker? Because it's smart. You ask it to do something and it'll be done. Just say, smart speaker, ask BBC Sounds to play your favourite music mix. Oh, that's nice. Or you can say, ask BBC Sounds to play that brand new podcast. Oh. And you can even ask BBC Sounds to pause, rewind and restart live radio on your smart speaker. If only everything, in life is that simple. For music, radio and podcasts, on most smart speakers, just say, Smart Speaker, Ask BBC Sounds.