What's He On About? Cricket Podcast · Charlie Harden

India Demolish England - Which Bowlers Should England Play?

·30 min·1 clip

Akash Deep took 10 wickets in the match, more than England’s fast bowlers combined.

The episode opens with the host returning after a busy stretch of cricket. Two Tests between England and India have just been played, and there has also been action between Australia and the West Indies. Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s batting for India Under-19s is mentioned right away. The host also promises a club cricket game of the week, plus a short look at Lourdes and some Ashes thoughts. The main question becomes what India and England have actually done to each other across the first two Tests. England won one. India won one. Honours are even, even if the second Test did not really feel that way. The new Indian captain Shubhman Gill is the obvious place to start. He has scored 585 runs in his first two Tests as captain against England. That includes 300 runs across the two matches and an average that looks almost ridiculous. His 269 in the first match and 161 in the second tore through the England attack. The host leans hard into how good that batting was and how little Gill seemed to give away. The first hundred is described through a false-shot percentage of 3.5%, which is used to show just how clean it all was. From there the discussion turns to England’s batting and whether that is really the problem. Even after six ducks, the host argues that the bigger issue is not the batting. The fast bowling is where the real trouble sits. England’s style with the bat leaves the bowlers with no time to recover. A big first-innings total still meant they were bowling every day of the Test. That sets up a look at the fast-bowling numbers so far in the series. Bashir gets his own quick verdict. The answer to whether he should play the next few Tests is yes, absolutely, because the team and Ben Stokes seem committed to him. The host is less sure that he should be the long-term answer, even if dropping him now does not feel likely. Liam Dawson comes up as the sort of spinner England maybe should have used earlier, especially when Jack Leach was out. The feeling is that Bashir arrived, did enough to stay in, and now looks close to untouchable. The conversation widens into what England should actually do with their attack if they want a different result. After the England-India section, the episode shifts into the kind of cricket side roads that keep the show moving. The host touches on club cricket and then tells a long finish about a match that looked finished. A team needs 101 with the last wicket pair at the crease. There are extras, there is pressure, and there is still one more late charge left in the game. Thomas Newcombe, batting at number 11, ends up on 47 not out and then gets the winning runs with a four. The stand is worth 104 for the tenth wicket and turns the match around completely. The story lands on the image of Newcombe getting to his 50 with the winning runs, which is exactly the kind of old-school cricket yarn the show likes to end on. The episode then wraps with the usual reminders to leave a review, check the social accounts, rate the show, and follow wherever you listen. The tone stays brisk, chatty, and happily overloaded from start to finish.

As heard by us

Fast, stat-led cricket chat that keeps turning scorelines into selection questions.

This episode moves through a lot of cricket without losing its thread. England-India stays at the center, with Shubman Gill's big series giving the discussion most of its weight.

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Why you'd press play

Need a quick take on England and India, plus Gill's massive series?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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