Test Match Special - Onto the World Cup

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

As the international summer comes to an end, England head to India to defend their 50 over World Cup title. Simon Mann is joined by record breaking bowler James Anderson, World Cup winners Tymal Mills and Alex Hartley and TMS Statistician Andy Zaltzman to look ahead to the tournament.Plus we hear from England white ball coach Matthew Mott. EVERY BALL of EVERY MATCH in the World Cup will be available live on the BBC with video highlights on the BBC Sport website and app.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Bring more gear, carry more passengers, face greater challenges. Welcome to the world of Defender, with seating up to eight, ample cargo space and legendary off-road capability. It's built to make the most of every adventure. Learn more at landrover.ca. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. on BBC Sounds Hello I'm Simon Mann and welcome to the Test Match special podcast

Our coverage of the cricket world cup starts on the 5th of October And we'll be looking ahead with James Anderson, Timal Mills Alex Hartley and Andy Zaltzman Plus We'll hear from England's white ball coach Matthew Mott What we're going to do up now is we're going to to Just focus a bit more on the World Cup in India that's coming up. Have a look at teams form, perhaps have some memories. And Jimmy as well, you talk about bowling on certain grounds in India.

And what it's like actually for pace bowlers in one-day cricket to bowl in India compared to what it's like in test match cricket. So is it, people think of it sort of a bit of a graveyard of a pace bowl as Indian. pitches, it's okay for spin. Is it or is it not? And how much does it depend on where you play? Yeah, it's a graveyard, yeah. No, it's very different. I think, yeah, it gets pigeonholed in deer as somewhere that is good for spinners, and it can be, definitely. But I think each ground varies in conditions and even that, you know, individual grounds vary from wicket to wicket as well. you know, Bangalore in general is a good batting wicket.

It's not good for any sort of bowler, really. But I think I've just saw today that Mohamed Siraj has become the number one one-day bowler in the world. So for an Indian seamer to be top of the rankings, he obviously has some success in India. So it's not all doom and gloom. But I think it definitely does test you and test your variations, your skills, and also how quickly you can adapt to certain conditions. you can get some swing definitely in certain venues and you can get some carry and some pace in other venues so i don't think it's uh you go there as a seema thinking it's all doom and gloom you've got to look at the positive side can you characterize certain grounds there and say yeah actually i've got things might go for me here say at calcutta but you go to chennai and a bit slower and lower do you look at it like that as a scene bowling you have to bowl differently in in different venues well i think as a seam bowler you've got to Well, certainly throughout my career, I've tried to develop skills that will allow me to cope with any conditions.

I don't think I ever go to a ground with preconceived ideas of what it's going to do on a particular day because, you know, you can turn up, especially in a World Cup when you need to use so many wickets, when you've got a lot of games being played at that ground, each one could be very different. So I don't think it's good to go to a ground with too many preconceived ideas. You've got to just adapt to the conditions on the day. that it will help you in your whatever skill your you know your strength is you know for me it was swing so i didn't mind if it was flat as long as i got some movement through the air that kept me in the game a little bit um and what what happened if you start off and it doesn't swing what what what's your what's your plan then not catch hamstring yeah not catch the captain's eye for about 50 overs well yeah i mean sometimes you just got a hope like i remember bowling like

verinda say wagging the first 10 overs of a game when it didn't swing and You know, I ended up going for 90 in the game. So some days it's just not your day and can be tough. You hope for a bit of luck. You hope for the other skills that you have got can come into play. But, yeah, I mean, as can anywhere, I think, you know, you look at grounds in England and you look at Trent Bridge and you play there. And we've seen, I think, the world record in 50 over cricket, 480.

So there's all grounds all around the world that aren't favorable for bowlers and you've just got to try and figure out on the day, as I said, what your skill on that day is going to, what skills you're going to need for that particular surface? Enjoy bowling in India, Alex? Well, I should, shouldn't I? But I think I went the whole tour of India, not picking up a wicket until I got number 11 out in the final ODI.

So I actually found India a really tough place, and I think it was that pre-conceived idea that I should be doing well, and I should be taking wickets, the wickets will spin. They didn't, they were very flat in Mumbai, and I really struggled out there. So I think that was more, I think, me putting pressure on myself going out, I need to be taking wickets. I've done it in Sri Lanka, I've done it in the West Indies.

Surely India is going to be the easiest place of the lot to bowl because, you know, you talk about indie, you talk about spin bowling. But, you know, playing one day cricket out there, every wicket that we played on was an absolute road. And I really... Are you just saying that, Alex, or you're just not bowled particularly well? Well, I've not played for cricket for England since, so maybe it was both.

But no, it was one of those where, you know, none of the spinners were really picking up wickets and we were thinking, this isn't how, you know, we're playing four spinners. This is not how it's how it's meant to go and a lot of pressure on. I think we had a young seam attack out there at the time. So, you know, you're sort of putting pressure on the debutants to get us to bowl at the middle order. Yeah. You were making the point, Jimmy, actually. It's an interesting one about, you know, because it's a World Cup and, you know, you're going to get a venue and there might be three or four games.

So you actually, you're going to get different. types of pitches presumably because they get a bit tired or you at some venues I understand Armadabad you can actually have a choice of pitch depending on the the soil there yeah well I remember Armadabad and we had the the nets out of the back which we played a pink ball game there and the nets out of floodlet and they were flying through absolutely tramming through a bit of grass on top really good pace really good bounce and the pitch in the middle actually looked similar and we ended up playing I think

I think we played four seamers. I think it was seven seamers you played. I don't think it was that bad. I'm teasing it. But then obviously India played four spinners and it absolutely ragged and it was over in four sessions. So I think, you know,

they can prepare something that is true and can carry and actually decent a bowl on it. And then Chennai is a good example. I think you watch the IPO and they can produce absolute big turners and they can produce flat wickets that

are great for batting so I think we're going to see all sorts of pitches this next couple of months I think we'll see all sorts of bowlers having success we'll see seamers having success and we'll see spinners in the game as well and we will see games which will be high

scoring I think we'll see a lot of teams go right we're going to go it looks flat it's flat here we'll go seam at the start then the pitches will break up so your spinners come back in and then if you get through to the finals you're going to have to go back to your seamers. So it's going to be one of those World Cups where you're going to have a different starting 11 most games

I would say so. What pitches do England want to play on? Do you think they'd much prefer to play on belters? Does that suit their style? Yes. I think so. I think England that their way over

the last few years has been get to closest 400 as you can. Pile on the runs and defend it. And I think if you're playing on flat wicket, it's obviously that's easier to do and obviously if you're back first with the heat and whatnot you know you might get a pitch to break up but I think England's

way of you know one day cricket has been get up and around 400 and back your bowlers to not go at more than sevens and over yeah I think that the game against New Zealand at the Oval would be the ideal sort of structure of a game try and go heavy with the runs

be really aggressive and then it allows their bowlers You know, they've got a good mix of bowlers as well. They've got the naggingly accurate sort of openers that can swing it. The left arm is Topley and Willie. Sam Curran as well. Chris Wilkes obviously has been incredibly successful part of this one-day side. And then you've got the pace of Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson, if you need it.

And then the spinners, I think, you know, Mouin and Adil Rashid could play a massive part. And then Livingston sort of on the periphery as well. I think it feels like they've got a lot of bases covered. They could also use Joe Root as an off-spinner. So it feels like they've got, as Alex said, you're going to need to play, chop and change your team a little bit for those various conditions.

And I think it feels like they've got all bases covered. Is there a left-armist strategy from England or is it just that they just happen to have three good left-armers? I think they've got three good left-armers. And I also think each of them provides something slightly different. You know, Sam Curran, brilliant at the death. These slower balls, you've got Topley that will ball in the power play. He'll swing the ball.

And you've got David Willie that can hit a hard length ball, so I look to swing the ball. So they all do something slightly different. Are they all going to play at once? Probably not, but you never know. We played six at once last year, didn't we? We played everyone with the left-arm seamer. So, yeah, I've got no idea. Yeah, I think it's just that they are the best bowlers in this format for England currently.

I think Topley and Willie with the new ball we've seen throughout the New Zealand series that they've both got their strengths in that but I think Chris Wilkes will start as an opening bowler in that power place will be one of the Willie or Topley in that other slot potentially Curran I think's got to play because of his

all-round ability seems to be able to everything he touches seems to turn to magic generally we saw that great partnership with Livingston at Southampton when England were in trouble so I think he'll he could slot in at sort of eight but then woke's in there as well it's a long back line I mean they've got got a lot of decisions to make but it's great to have those those options I think you know

then you've got you throw Mark Wood in there as well who's not actually played a game a 50 over game this summer yet so you know he's going to be sort of thrown in it without playing much cricket but how are they going to use him do you think do you think they'll it they might limit him to I don't know four games or ideally they want him to play every single match or will they have to mix a match of it? I don't think they want to play him in every single game but I think there could be a situation where they play him and actually only bowl him six or seven overs if they play enough bowlers. So I think that could be a way of sort of breaking him in a

little bit but I think towards the back end of the tournament especially if they make it through, they'll want him to be firing on all cylinders to get 10 overs out of him. I think if you're Gus Atkinson as well, you're looking at Mark Wood going, I know he's not going to play all the games. So I've got to be ready to go. And, you know, we've seen him bowling the previous series and he's bowed fantastically well. So, you know, you've got, if you can't play wood for certain reasons, you want him to play against a certain team or on a certain pitch, you know you've still got Atkinson to come in and ball the same pace and ball heat. So I actually think it would just be one or the other

and it just depends where and when they are in the tournament. Indian World Cup memories, Jimmy. So England against Ireland, you played in probably one of the most famous one day internationals. Is it a game that you, when you look back, you've wiped all memories? I hope you haven't wiped all memories because I'd like to talk about it for a little bit. But can you remember much about that game or was it a game you just actually wanted to walk away and just almost like put it to bed and leave it behind? Um, I wouldn't say I blocked it out of my mind completely, but it's not something I think about every day.

No, no, no, I'm not saying you think about it, but you know, it would be a bit of it would be in your memory bang. Were you, were you out there thinking, hmm, hold on, so we, you know, we've got this game won, and then you think, hold on, is this getting, just beginning to get away from us? And then it's almost like creeps up on you? Yeah, I felt like a lot of game, back then. we managed to lose from some very strong positions in those days but um yeah i mean we should never have lost that game but i think it was kevin o'brien wasn't it who got the yeah he made 113 from 63 balls with 13 4s and 6 6 6s you actually started the innings off by getting a wicket with the first ball do you remember that game the wicket with the first

ball of the innings no you don't ed joyce william porterfield yeah the other one really left hand at the top no i'm Yeah, I do remember it. I remember, well, the thing that flashes into my mind straight away is Kevin O'Brien just carving it over midwicket, just constantly picking it up, either picking up back of a length or slogging length over midwicket, and that's about it. Yeah. It was an extraordinary day, and there was no way Ireland were winning the game. They were 110 for 5. They needed over 300 to win, and then Kevin O'Brien just got going. England had scored 327 for 8 from their 50 overs Peterson 59 Trot 92 Bell 81 hadn't got a huge amount of runs in the last few overs as wickets fell and then Porterfield out first ball of the

of the innings according to the Crick Infotex commentary not a great delivery Jimmy full and wide outside off dragged on to middle stump I'm sure you're polling for it goes down as bold done it Graham Swan picked up three wickets as you said island 111 for 5 in the 25th and sort of following almost the expected pattern of a test nation against a then associate nation and then Kevin O'Brien at 50 balls to reach his century batting with dyed pink hair 47 from Cusack 33 not out from Mooney at the end of Ireland 1 with five wickets at sorry five balls to spare with seven wickets down

Yeah, one of the most remarkable one day games that I can remember witnessing. Where are we on how we think that the World Cup will go? We've been asked to do ours or top four in our predicted winners. What sort of form are the teams in going into this World Cup? I mean, India have just won the Asia Cup with a remarkably short final. I mean, astonishing. The game ended in about 21 overs, didn't it? Something like that.

Yeah, they bowled Sri Lanka out for 50 and then chased it down in, I think, 6.1. won overs. I'll find out where it is on the list of shortest completed ODIs, but I think it's certainly top five, to look it up the other day. In terms of Lanker had been in great form, hadn't they? Yeah, Sir Rang could beat in Pakistan in, well, the effective semi-final in the Super Force stage. And, you know, Serang had to qualify for the World Cup through that qualifying tournament we were talking about earlier on, so their form had dipped, but then were demolished Syrah, as you Jimmy said, just got reached number one in the world rankings, took six wickets in that game.

In terms of sort of form coming into the tournament, we're just looking since the start of October last year, it's basically the last year of ODI cricket. And again, it shows the sort of curiosity of this format. England have played 13 games, 1, 6, lost 7. India have played 27 ODIs, 1-16, lost 8, with three unfinished games due to weather. Sri Lanka of 1, 15 and 9,

but played in that qualifying tournament, so played against some of the weaker sides. Pakistan won 10, lost five. South Africa, who hadn't been in great form, won the last three against Australia to get a really excellent three-two series victory. So coming in with a bit of form of momentum, the spinners, Shamsi and Maharaj,

bowling well, so a potent top order. Australia won the seven, lost four in the last year. It's really quite hard to tell who's good, partly because I say South Africa beat Australia in the last game there was no Cummins, Hazelwood or Stark and it's quite rare in ODI cricket at the moment to see teams with their first choice 11 out

and it's only I think when the World Cup starts that we'll almost see how good these teams are yeah what's your hunch about likely semi-finalists Alex? I mean you can't look past India home conditions, home tournament I think for me

they're up there I think England obviously got an opportunity. We've got both World Cups at the minute, a really strong side. Pakistan, I'd love to see Pakistan there, mainly because I love to see India versus Pakistan, especially in a semi-final or a final. I think it's what everyone wants around the world, but I also think they're a well-rounded squad. I wanted to say South Africa, especially after watching against Australia, but having looked back at previous World Cups and the T20 World Cup just gone,

I know it's a different format. They're really underperformed and it's almost like every time they go to a World Cup they get to knock out stages or crucial games, they bottle it and they're not very good and they almost have to get over that line.

So I'm not putting South Africa in there for me but I'm not sure about my fourth team. It's a good wild card pick though to go for South Africa and for them to make it because probably no one else will for that very reason and they have got some talented players

and they've also got quite a few players that have played in the IPL so quite used to, I know most teams have got a lot of players that played in the IPL, but they've got a fair number of players that played in the IPR. I mean, someone like Hirac Klasson, who made that magnificent 100 against Australia at St. Sturion the other day. I mean, he was good for the sunrises, hydrabad in the IPL.

He came out and he looked as though he could cope with the conditions and scored quickly. Then you look at that T20 World Cup that's just gone, and they had to beat the Netherlands, and the Netherlands won, and you think, how on earth of South Africa not got through to the semifinals because they've lost to the Netherlands, and we've seen it time and time again. of this time there's sort of less expectation and in the past they've had really good teams going into some of these tournaments particularly think so 10 or 15 years ago they had really strong

sides that would generally find a way of messing it up and I'm almost no stronger side than the one that played on this ground in in 2000 that's in 1999 when herschal gibbs dropped that catch you get had the chance to eliminate Australia and course they have that amazing semi-final edge of summer that was a that was a good South African side yeah and then they started in the 2011 World Cup England England being them in Chennai I think but they had played very well in the group stage and then had a sort of mad 20 minutes batting in the quarter-final in Dhaka against New Zealand that exposed their sort of weakness of their tail-end batting and that's you know another

factor in these these teams where you know it could be a real strength for England particularly if you say if they're picking Wokes and Curran early yeah Willie they could you know bat down pretty much to what's a 10 certainly which gives you that little bit of wiggle room in the event of a a collapse. That might be a weakness again for South Africa at this time. But yeah it's rather intriguing and I think yeah they could be an interesting side. It's so they've got two

good spinners and that that factor of the IPL that teams just have many more players that are familiar with the conditions and maybe in previous World Cups in your pitch for me to put them in my semi-final top four has gone very well but I'm still not sure I think

I watched them the other day against Australia and yes Australia didn't have their strongest side out but I still thought they look pretty impressive. Well, the last three games, they've looked really impressive. And as you said, the batting looks particularly strong, I think. And if they can get players in form who like those conditions, you know, I don't see any reason.

Miller's another one in the middle order who's played a lot of IPL cricket. Clinton de Kock is around the top. And their bowling attack could be extremely strong. Shamsie and Marharaj, very good spinners, very experienced as well. so I feel like they could they could actually surprise a few and make it and then that I'd mean you know I'd like to see Pakistan in there as well

I think I like them as a team I think they're you know they're fun to watch they've got a lot of character in their team as well as a lot of quality obviously I want to see England in there as well and then India you'd think home conditions they've got to so that I'd mean that the likes of Australia and New Zealand would

miss out on the last four and you just think in a World Cup Australia just seemed to turn up don't they and bring it and for me it would be potentially South Africa or Australia for that fourth spot do you think there's a possibility

we could really be surprised is an Asian World Cup you know I'm saying India Bangladesh Sri Lanka South Africa as potential semi-fathers does that sound mad or does it actually feel quite open it feels more open than I remember World Cup being I think there's

plenty of teams playing well as you mentioned Sri Lanka have done really well up until that final the other day. You know, they've put in some great performances. So there's no reason why they, you know, they're like the conditions. They'll be used to the conditions. No reason why they can't make the semis. So yeah, I think there will be a surprising though. I think there'll be a big team that misses out,

maybe even a couple of big teams that miss out on the last four. And there could be a surprise where, you know, a Sri Lanka or a South Africa that maybe people aren't thinking too much about at the moment. Afghanistan have the bowlers to cause problems to teams and you expect them I think to do much better than they did in 2019 when they didn't win a game so yeah in in then get some runs on the board or if or if they bowl first and bowl a team out that takes a bit of pressure off their off their batting so Bangladesh's form hasn't been great of late but they've got a few experience what's it been like is there is there a difference with Bangladesh between

playing at home and playing away. The reason I say that, of course, is, you know, if you're playing in quite alien conditions, I think there's a problem they've often had. But when they play at home, they've generally got a very good record. Okay, they're not playing at home, but they're playing in quite familiar and similar sort of conditions in the next couple of months. Yeah, just looking at their recent results, they've won 10 and lost 8 in the last year, but they played two series with Ireland and won all the completed games in those in those series.

They lost at home to Afghanistan and 2-1 in a series in July. They didn't do particularly one in the Asia Cup. They beat India in a dead game at the end of the Super Four stage. But other than that, one of the other three games, other four games that was against Afghanistan. They did beat India in December of last year, 2-1. I don't know how, from memory, that wasn't a particularly strong Indian side that they sent. But yeah, so they've had some good results, some not so good results. Litt and Das have been very good for them, batting at the top of the order.

They still got Mushvika and Shaki, very experienced players in the middle order. They'll have some good spinners. So, yeah, I think you'd expect probably all the teams to win. It's going to be tough for the Netherlands, I think, particularly since they qualified. they haven't played a single one day international so it's extraordinary really isn't it that that's their preparation now they are going to play two warm-up games in india but i mean it's not it's not a lot is it really to get sort of battle-hardened perhaps they might be nice and fresh everyone else we're hamstrings will be going and things like that what about india

they always when you look at them you all think they almost should win every tournament they play in it so it's only white ball they got so much talent and so much talent in the wings as well and they play a lot of white ball cricket. We all see the IPL every year. One thing about people say, oh, the pressure of playing at home because they're used to that, aren't they? I think, you know,

I think they have to be favourites going into the World Cup, you know. They've got the best franchise league in the world. They've got a well-rounded squad. They've got the best seamer. I just think when you look at them, it's not theirs to win, but the home advantage and playing at home all the time

and your players not playing in the likes of England and not being allowed to play in the 100 and all these tournaments around the world, you almost think that they should go on and win it. They have to go on and win it. I just think the home conditions suit them absolutely down to the ground. And I think it's amazing how many tournaments you turn up to, and if India are playing, the pitch just seems to tip in their favour a little bit.

I remember the Champions Trophy Final 2013 at Hedgebaston. It was a 20-over game in the end, but it was an absolute buntan. turned square is certainly what we wouldn't have wanted that so yeah I feel like the home conditions will suit them down to the ground and they'll be definitely in the last four

yeah and yeah a real potential winners I would the one thing about India is the feeling that they're just a bit too conservative you know a lot of teams have taken on the sort of aggressive approach that's one of the criticism that's been labeled at them but is it

I wonder whether it will be a World Cup where you can go hell for leather I guess it depends where you play but it's about it might be about adapting because of the you know because of the slowish sort of nature of the pitches there you have to you have to adapt and it's not about just bashing it all here there and everywhere yeah completely i think i think back to bangalore 2011 we had a 390 played 390 tie against india so there's obviously games where it will suit the batters and you've got to go hell for leather you have to and then there will be other games where the pitches are slightly slow and you've got to just

sort of manoeuvre the ball maybe a little bit better that's where I think England and India will potentially have an advantage they've got the players to be able to do that in the middle order

as well as the players that can clear the ropes and whack it so yeah I feel like there'll be a massive mix throughout the tournament of pitchers and we'll see very different styles

of play throughout it's worth remembering course that last time when the World Cup was held here that India finished top of the group, didn't they? I mean, they were the best side over the league stage of the

competition. Yes, and then they fell to pieces against New Zealand in the semi-final. So they finished top. New Zealand finished fourth, narrowly ahead of Pakistan on net run rate from memory. New Zealand won the toss in the semi-final at Old Trafford, so only advantage of finishing top of the group was

dissipated, such as it was and India for the first time lost wickets early on. They lost their top three all out for one. I think they were chasing, weren't they, in that game. And their top order had been so good through the tournament that the middle order was sort of out of practice and they had a bit of a tail and ended up losing that game

despite a fine innings from Judea towards the end. So, yeah, that's, I guess the nature of World Cups is that all teams, however good they are, have an Achilles heel of some kind and it just takes you know it to come to the four in one game and that can be that can be it you raised a good point the other day about the structure of the the world cup I mean I mean 10 team everyone plays everybody and there is an intensity about that and there's a fascination about that but we've seen in some of the franchise tournaments that teams that finish top of the group are rewarded more than teams that you know finish fourth it's harder

to win it if you finish fourth well New Zealand finished fourth last time and we're were you know a Ben Stokes sort of fluke to the boundary almost away from winning the World Cup weren't they out and that's probably that's possibly the biggest problem one of the biggest problems facing in it you would back them to win enough games in their home conditions to comfortably finish in the top four but then when it comes down to that knockout match comes down to the scars of losing semifinals you know the boys and the girls do it all the time don't they so it's it's you almost say all they they are going to finish top four it's just that knockout game, it's whoever turns up on the day, and whoever has a good day.

It takes one innings or one bowling spell from a player to really change your game, doesn't it? So, you know, they'll have to, if you just qualify for the semis, you've still got a B on your A game to make sure you get through to that final. Couldn't you make a case for England, and we've seen it happen in World Cups in the past, didn't happen last time, although it nearly did. And, you know, they're fantastic, wonderful performance against Australia. I think probably their best ever one-day performance was against Australia in that World Cup semi-fond. You're paying for pound to do what they did to a good Australian side

in the semi-final. Well, there were some dicey moments on the way. Could we make, could you make a case? I'm not telling you necessarily want to. For England, you're not doing quite as well as we, as everyone's expecting them. Could you see, if it does unravel for them, why would it unravel for them in the World Cup? I think I can see them going a little bit too hard and losing quick wickets and having to reconsolidate in a few games and not quite getting as many runs as they necessarily would want and then you know the bowling not quite being as good as the previous tournament and going oh okay we're not defending 380 we're trying to defend 320 and it's not quite going our way yeah i i i think maybe there's been a little bit of disruption as well

this this time so in the buildup so the the roy and brook stuff um you know you look back to that 2019 and the build up to that was pretty solid it was like these are the players we're using these are the, and they're the players that actually went on and played in that World Cup with the exception of Willie who got left out. I don't think that caused major disruption to the actual team itself, whereas this

time, maybe there's a few players out of form, there's been a lot of cricket, you know, it's been a long summer, maybe there's just a little bit of fatigue maybe setting in and, you know, it's a long tournament two months in India, seven weeks if you get through to

the knockout stages, maybe That's the only issue I see from an England point of view. I think if they're all in top form, all the players are in top form and all fresh, then I see them making it to the last four. Yeah, they've got lots of talent, haven't they? The batting is, do we think the batting is the strongest suit? Or do you think there's enough in the bowling to hold teams back when they're really going for it and putting pressure on? You'd say the batting's the strongest, I'd say.

you know you look at the top order bestow Milan Root Stokes you'd say is really strong then the middle order of Butler Moeen Livingston you know it's as good as any top six or seven out there I think and then with Brooke on the sideline

as well you'd say yeah it's really strong and can test anyone I'd say the bowling is probably the little bit of a doubt for me you know the likes of Willie and Topley and Curran I know Curran had a really good IPL

but in India can they do the same sort of job that they've been doing here? Will they get the same amount of swing will they get the same amount of movement with that new ball in the first 10 and be able to take wickets in the power play which is actually it's probably more crucial in India than it is in England?

We actually saw us well when Rash went off against New Zealand at Cardiff wasn't it? The seamers were going around the park and they weren't able to adapt and get themselves back into the game and then when When Rash came back on, he got hit out of the ground and got taken apart. I think a lot of teams will actually look to, they'll look at England's starting 11 and go like, Rashid is key for England. If we can get on top of him, then we're on top of England.

So I think a lot of teams will just look to target the one bowler and help the rest sort of crumble behind him. The TMS podcast, follow the games live on the BBC Sport website and app where you can watch highlights during the match. Have you ever heard the tale of the football player turned armoured car robber? It's a story so wild, it almost seems fake. No, no, no, what do you hear, emergency? Armed robbery? It's an implausible tale of drugs, greed, and waterway escapes. It's like something out of a movie.

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From BBC Radio 5 Live. Time to hear now from England's white ball coach Matthew Mott, who's been speaking with Henry Moran. Yeah, once we set foot in India, it's game on. and you know we've got to manage it's a tight turnaround so the bowlers in particular have to be really careful with but as a you know the batting group they'll be they'll be absolutely out there to try and adapt to those conditions as quickly as possible how much time have you been able to spend thinking about those plans and at all of the different permutations uh yeah plenty of time i've well document i've had a few

months off so in that time had a lot of conversations and that's been the beauty of this role that's what rob key wanted from the start with the splitting of the role rather than, you know, being in the midst of eyes on the ground that you can actually look up a bit and look further forward. So, you know, I had a lot of conversations with Joss about our style of play and what we want to, the key message is that we want to get through to the group. And it's more an evolution than a revolution. I think the side's been in a good spot for a number of years now. So just tinkering bits and pieces. And it's quite obvious England's brand of cricket. So just trying to reinforce that and be

positive around that. and Roy is in theory still potentially going to be a part of this World Cup if he is required have you spoken to him in the last few days yeah I have yeah we've been in touch yeah he's obviously incredibly disappointed and it was um toughest decision I've been a part of when you leave a player of that caliber out that's been a great servant and and has done nothing wrong really to be squeezed out of the 15 was was probably particularly for Josh and I one of the most difficult sort of conversations we've had to have but you know in the spirit that's been in his

as well as you could hope he's determined to get back there he's determined to make sure he's fit and ready should an opportunity open up and I've got no doubt if he got that opportunity you'd come out and make a real statement so he was receptive to the idea of needed that he'll be on that plane out there absolutely yeah he's got a burning desire to still be out there and that's exactly what you'd expect from a player is you know he's had his ups and downs over his career but what an amazing record he's had so you expect him to bounce back What about England's expectations for this World Cup?

Have you set a bare minimum? No, not at all. You know, I think whenever you lead into World Cups and one thing I am keen is for people not to talk about, it's in the defence. I don't think there's anything in our strategy that will be about defence. And I think everyone will have their theories

on who's the favourites leading in. I think we're one of a number of teams who are capable of winning it. But with World Cups, it's about putting yourself into those semi-finals and then, you know, you can do anything from there. But the group stages are obviously incredibly difficult. We're playing a number of different venues.

We'll have to be on our game every single time. And then, you know, the game is to try and get through those stages and then see what happens. And luck and timing play a huge part in that. I've seen that both sides of the ledger. So our job is to make sure that our first port of call is New Zealand for that first game and then reset. You've won a lot of ICC events, both as coach.

Australia of women's side and also with the England men's team last year in Australia. What's the secret? What's going to be your key message, that key little ingredient to get England success in India? I think the best thing that you can do is treat each game in isolation. I think there's always a part of you that wants to rush through the tournament and get to the end and hope that you're in that semi-final phase. The more that you can stay present, make sure that every opposition is treated equally. And every venue, you do your research and you're ready to go and your plans are really clear. Your messaging's clear.

And then each game, you just reset. And I think if you can get that mindset happening, you give yourself every chance. Just finally. How excited are you? I'm very excited, actually. I think I would say going into the last World Cup, you know, I was probably more nervous than excited. But I just think it's a great opportunity for this group. I think, you know, I've got a lot of players who've played a lot of big tournaments.

We've got a good mix of players who, you know, some. fresh faces in there as well and they'll add a lot of energy and probably good naivety to the World Cup but I think we're going over there I think we're a good chance of competing in those finals and we've got a lot of guys who've had IPL experience so that will weigh heavily in our favour but we all know that it's going to be a very tough tournament well we can hear now from a World Cup winning bowler I've been talking to Tim Al Mills about the challenges of bowling pace in India you need to be fit I think to be to be to

especially for ODI cricket, because the climate and the conditions play a huge part. Especially if you're playing a day game, so starting in the morning and you're playing throughout the heat of the day, both as a bowl around the batter and in the field. So it will vary the different parts of India that you'll be in, but certainly it's a warm part

of the time of the year, so you'll be kind of operating in mid-30s with in some places really high humidity, so you've got to make sure you're in good shape. And yeah, look, the beautiful thing about India is that the different grounds can offer completely different challenges. You'll have some grounds that are very flat wickets. You think the Wanker Day Stadium and places like that,

that have good pace, good carry, not very big boundaries. That's where you'll potentially see some of your 350 scores. And it'll be interesting to see as the tournament goes on, will some of the grounds really turn? We can, you know, you see during IPLs and test matches, they can make wickets that can turn square. I'm sure they'll be encouraged to produce flat wickets, but it is a big challenge ground to ground

what the different grounds will demand of you as a bowler in particular. If it's hot and it's flat, what do you do as a bowler? What are your options as a pace bowler? You got to bowl straight. I know it sounds very simple to say and something that I'm sure just get spoken about

till you're sick of hearing it, but you've got to keep the stumps in play. If anything, you'd be a bit straighter. So instead of being off stump, you want to be middle and off stump because players are so good at accessing the offside or moving around the crease. So you really got to keep the stumps in play.

You've got to hit the pitch hard, especially on the slower wickets, the flatter wicket, so you can hopefully get some variable bounce up and down. You've got to identify whether a pitch is more suited to cutters or to say back of the hand slower balls, because sometimes, from my experience, playing in India, sometimes the pitchers that are so slow,

your back of the hand slower ball is almost too slow. Does that make sense? Whereas you need the quicker cutter. onto the wicket. So he's got to communicate really as a batting group, as a bowling group, with your captain, whatever it might be. You don't want to let a five, six over period slip where you're getting your tactics wrong and especially like in a power play or towards the back end where teams are trying to go pretty big. How quickly can you do that in a game? I mean, are you talking about two or three overs in or does it take a little bit longer to

make that assessment? It can do. It depends. So one thing you can assess quickly is say literally A brand new ball, first couple of overs of the game, you can sometimes try and search for swing for too long, so identifying some days it won't swing. You know, we look, sometimes in England, we see like the game of the Oval, the ODI that we covered England versus New Zealand. It swung beautifully for a long time, didn't it?

Chris Wokes bowled a seven, eight over spell with a new ball. That's not going to happen in India. So you've got to identify, okay, maybe it might swing for an over or two, but then if it's stop swinging, stop searching for it. So you've got to drag your length back, maybe go to wobble seam quite quickly. And that'll be an experienced thing.

So England will be very experienced in that regard. And they have a lot of players around that can communicate quickly. Obviously, the nations, or India themselves, as a home nation and the subcontinent countries as well, will be good at, you'd like to think, assessing conditions quickly. And then, yes, as the game goes on,

so you go to Cutters early, or do you wait too long to go to Cutters, and then all of a sudden you've lost five, six overs where the batters have gotten used to the pace of the pitch. So yeah, it's a challenge. It's a kind of a challenge within the challenge, I guess. And yeah, it would be one that varies ground to ground. Which are the grounds that you would enjoy bowling on there,

that you think are better for bowling on? You mentioned actually the Wangaday Stadium. That's quite tough. Bangalore is quite tough for bowlers as well. What about somewhere like Delhi or Pune? You bowled on both those grounds? Yeah, the problem is in India, it depends what the boundary sizes are as well. A lot of them are small grounds.

A lot of them are, they're good wickets to bat on. If anything, they want the wickets to be better to bat on than they do to bowl on. But watching games in our Medabad at the new stadium there, I haven't played there. The big Coliseum, 100,000 people, looks a brilliant atmosphere, but they've actually got, looks like they've got a really good wicket there with pace, carry, and also that plays into the batter's hands as well. So our medabad, you could argue, is probably one of the better cricket wickets wickets at the moment there, just in terms of having genuine pace and carry.

Colcutta, Eden Gardens, has got good pace and good. carry as well at the moment so look out for some higher scores there. Bangalore traditionally is the kind of the bowlers graveyard to go to. On a day like that when you're bowling in Bangalore do you just say well look I'm probably going to go for six and a half and over today and if I go for six and a half that's actually not too bad or do you have to be a bit more ruthless with yourself than that? Yeah I don't think you ever you should never go into a game thinking that you're going to do badly because then you probably will do

badly you've still got to go out there with the intent to do well and assess how you're But you're a bit more philosophical if someone, you know, flicks you into the stand, whatever. Of course. And it's identifying what is a good shot on the batter's behalf or what is a bad ball. And you've got to start well, that's key. When you say you bat first, for example, on what looks like a very good wicket, your team's got 350 runs. You know that that wicket is not going to be zipping around and nipping and great to bowl on. So you know you really have to be really on it from ball one. No looseners, no coming into your spell and, you know, just having a few easy ones.

to get going because the bat is going to probably leave it or just pat it around. You know that the bat is going to be coming at you and trust the bounce of the pitch. So it's how you prepare and how you hit your straps early. But then it's also how those games like that often boil down to real small moments. So can you break apart?

Can you think Mark Wood, Josh Butler throws Mark Wood the ball in the 30 first over? He might have bowled five overs for 50 up until that point, but he can still make an impact in that one Does that make sense? Yeah. Those are moments actually when you come back into the game. Okay, you've had a bad spell or your team's having a bad period, but you get a fresh moment.

It's all about fresh moments. So, okay, you come back into the sack or a leg spinner, Adil Rashid, for example. Toss the ball. Can you make an impact? Because then that can have a knock-on effect for the rest of the innings and then you'll look back on the game and think, okay, this game changed when player X took a wicket. I think those are going to be the moments that could define tournaments. How many momentum stoppers have you got in your game?

stoppers have you got in your team as a bowling lineup, I think. England are playing India in Lucknow. Now Lucknow is a new ground. During the IPL, it was actually pretty difficult to bat. You think about Indian grounds generally, you know, quite good for batting on. Sometimes the spinners, you know, the spinners will hold sway at times. What about when you're playing on a pretty scrubby pitch? What do you've got to do there?

When you're in a tournament in general that might favour the batting, when you come to a ground or you start playing in a game that you feel you might have the other hand as a bowler, as a bowler, again, you've got to really make pay and take advantage of it. And that might be your spin, you're just backing up your spiners and you know, okay, we're going to about 30 overs of spin here. So for our 20 overs of pace, we need to really restrict and not give freebies and things like that. And that's where the communication comes into play with regards to you cut to slower balls,

etc. And yes, it's just identifying the game situation and being in the, don't just, you're not just sat there as a bowler speaking, say, we're backing first, you're not just sat there. just you know in the changing room not really paying attention you need to have a general awareness of what's going on in the game I like to if I'm sat watching a game of cricket that I'm not playing in or if I'm in the opposition in a T-20 game I'll watch how the other left-arm seamers bowl and just to see you know just so I can pick up tips from when it comes to my turn to bowl that's if that's if I'm batting in the first innings or you're looking back at the

games that have been played at the grounds as the tournament goes on and see if there's any trend trends and things like that so ultimately you're not going to change an awful lot because you have your strengths and you have your weaknesses and everybody's different, but you need to adapt and play to those strengths accordingly as best as you can over a long period of time, over 10 overs as a bowler, which will be the tricky thing. If you've been born in India, would you prefer to grow up as a bowler or a batter? Oh, a batter, 100%. Well, it's obviously easier on that I've had a fair share of injury

worries as well, but it is kind of the home of batting as such, isn't it? And it's the theatre of it you know those brilliant crowds and the stadiums that you get you know so well as well from from commentating and broadcasting it is great to watch when a batter's going or you have to a partnership that's going and the crowd are loving it and the balls flying around it's brilliant to watch isn't it and you don't get really get that in a lot of other places around you feel like you're playing against the crowd as well as the batter yeah 100% if you're even though you're out there as a fielding side talking now as a bowler you're 11 versus 2 out there aren't you? But really, you're 11 versus, if you're playing against India, for example, you're 11

versus 2 in the middle and 60, 70, 80,000 people in the crowd as well. But yeah, it can be great theatre. You can feel a bit helpless. Another challenge for the bowling sides during this World Cup will be the crowd noises, potentially, especially in the games that are sold out. Obviously, trying to communicate between Josh Butler as a captain and a wicketkeeper, how you communicate with your bowlers and with your fielders. You know, people waving to each other on the, on the, on the, on the boundary edge and you can't hear and you, those are little things that, you know, you're going to have to negotiate in what I'm sure are going to be some great crowds all throughout the World Cup in some of these brilliant stadiums in India. So, yeah, the challenges will be plentiful

and I'm looking forward to watching it. Well, that's Tim Al Mills. Our coverage of the World Cup starts on the 5th of October with every ball of every game live on the BBC with video highlights on the website and app. And we'll have daily podcast for you on BBC Science. Follow the games live on the BBC Sport website and app where you can watch highlights during the match. Hello there, the world of golf has got a lot going on in the moment, so what you need is a podcast which keeps you on top of all those important issues, but also throws in obscure 1980s television references,

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