Nasser Hussain believes Bazball can work in Indian conditions, feels loss in 1st Test wake up call for India
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Cricketer-turned-broadcaster, Nasser Hussain, believes that India’s loss to England in Hyderabad is a wake-up call for them and thinks that “Bazball can work in these conditions”.
The former England captain opines that India had the opportunity to shut the game down in the first innings but “some sloppy dismissals” prevented them from doing so.
“India will probably rue their first innings. They got 436 but actually they could have got a lot more if not for some sloppy dismissals. They will come back.
“They are a very fine side and history tells you it will be tough for England here,” Hussain wrote in his column for Sky Sports.
“But it is a wake-up call for India as England have shown Bazball can work in these conditions,” he wrote.
Hussain hailed Ben Stokes-led England side for its “stubbornness” and is of the opinion that the England red-ball side doesn’t pay heed to the outside noise.
“It shows they (England) have great self-belief. They have great belief in the way they are playing the game and do things their own way. They don’t worry about outside noise, that other people would have selected other cricketers, that people thought they should have had warm-up matches.
“What I like about them is their stubbornness. If you doubt them, they’ll double down on it and go even more stubborn. I think that is a good thing because if you’re constantly listening to all the noise, all that’s written and said, you flicker from one theory to another,” Hussain wrote.
Hussain also heaped praise on England’s left-arm off-spinner Tom Hartley for his outstanding effort in the second innings and lauded Ollie Pope for playing a “truly remarkable innings”.
“They faced a 190-run deficit in the first innings but, against the [high-quality] spinners in the opposition, Ollie Pope then played one of the truly remarkable innings we have ever witnessed.
“Then you had Tom Hartley, who struggled in the first innings, taking seven wickets with his skipper Stokes backing him to the hilt. When you’re off the field, I think you forget the pressure to step up in standard when you’re making your Test debut.
“Nerves get to you and in that first innings Hartley did not bowl particularly bowl well. His variation in length would have disappointed him. So credit has to go to him for the second innings.
“In the cauldron of a Test match in India, when the whole world is talking about you and saying, ‘are you a Test match cricketer?’, to come out and bowl the way he did, it was not just about ability but about mental strength as well. He showed he is very strong mentally,” Hussain wrote.
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