England's spin conundrum, central contracts and New Zealand tour 🙌 | Sky Sports Cricket Podcast

► Subscribe to Sky Sports Cricket: bit.ly/Subscrib...
► Watch Sky Sports: bit.ly/BuySkyS...
Nas and Ath are back in the UK to review England's tour of Pakistan and whether spin really is the current team's 'kryptonite'.
They also chat about the players who've received central contracts from the ECB, and those who've missed out. Plus they look ahead to England's next Test series - away in New Zealand.
#englandcricket #newzealandcricket #pakistancricket
► Cricket highlights: bit.ly/SkyCric...
► Sky Sports Cricket Podcast: bit.ly/SkySpor...
► Cricket masterclasses: bit.ly/SkyCric...
More from Sky Sports on KZbin:
► Sky Sports: bit.ly/SkySport...
► Sky Sports Boxing: bit.ly/SSBoxingSub
► Sky Sports Darts: bit.ly/SubSkyS...
► Sky Sports Football: bit.ly/SSFootba...
► Sky Sports F1: bit.ly/Subscrib...
► Sky Sports Golf: bit.ly/Subscri...
► Sky Sports News: bit.ly/SkySport...
► Sky Sports Premier League: bit.ly/Subscri...
► Sky Sports Retro: bit.ly/SkySport...
► Facebook: / skysportscricket
► Instagram: / skysportscricket
► X: x.com/SkyCricket
►Website: www.skysports.com
► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: www.skysports....

[@Mister_H.]

I could listen to these pair chat about anything all day long!

[@aflatoonist4632]

Why are you lundians obsessed with White people?

[@Chelvam-so4qh]

Absolutely just beautiful to hear

[@abdullateef1328]

Y

[@27sadhu]

and what about Sunny G and Murali karthik..how long could you listen...

[@krishnayallapanthula]

I really enjoy the commentary of Mike and Nas. Great players.

[@jiteshkumar3774]

Ian Chappell criticised english commentators. And who are those commentators every body knows.

[@omerfar]

If i ever get a Time Machine I would go back to 90s test matches in England vs Pakistan…. Waseem and Waqar vs Nasir and Atherton. I watched every single ball of those games ❤❤❤

[@abdullateef1328]

Y? what you found special in that?

[@gulqureshi5681]

Amazing people. Top podcast.

[@johnnyboy2268]

I love cricket, im not a purist and know nothin about the tactical side of things but adore listening to these two along with anyone else but these two mainly are a joy

[@jiteshkumar3774]

Ian Chappell criticised english commentators. And who are those commentators every body knows.

[@but-germany1181]

Both are absolutely true people. Respect

[@vybhaveswaraiah7114]

ENG started 2023 with a tour of NZ for 2 tests , drew 1-1. The 2nd test at Wellington was an absolutely incredible test match, NZ winning by just 1 run, Only the 2nd time in Test Match Cricket history that a team has won a Test Match after following on. ENG will end 2 years of playing test Match Cricket with touring NZ for a 3 match Test Series which will also end their WTC 2023-25 cycle. Nice to see NZ play a 3 match Test Series at home after a very long time

[@ngee-minggoh3450]

Regarding the England Test team, the analysis of New Zealand in India and how smart they are as cricketers highlights the precise perceived problems of the England team. Whether or not they -actually- are clever or stupid, the way the apply themselves is so incriminating in the eyes of most Test cricket fans that it doesn’t matter if they win spectacularly if it looks like they don’t either care or have a clue what to do when the going gets slightly tough… Have SO much respect for New Zealand - achieving so much with relatively less resources for so long now. 👍

[@Lawless2401]

they have been winning a lot of tbings lately with far less players and resourcez

[@kiwihib]

I expected India to chase down 147, but I'm over the moon with a 3-0.

[@mustafasultan6436]

I love listening to these two legends

[@guitartommo2794]

2:38 could be an England fan’s synopsis of many of England tests in the 90’s

[@YoshiJoshi_]

My main issue with the NZ squad is that we saw the problems in the summer with the spare batter (Lawrence) being required to open and have once again picked only one spare batter who is an, at best, middle order player. In fact he feels more like a Stokes back up than a pure batting one. What happens if one of the openers breaks a finger? We will either need to over promote someone who will likely struggle, or shuffle the order around and ask someone to do a job they wouldn't normally do. Why not pick a backup opener/3 alongside a backup middle order player? If you can take three spinners, it hardly feels like it is driven by squad size

[@srikar1881]

Alestair cook a great player of spin and he was nightmare for india. And another player who scored hundreds of runs against and never get out is Andy flower of zimbabwe. And Gary kristen was another player who scores more runs against india

[@seshadrisubramanian]

Absolute pleasure listening to them. Always.

[@SOHAIL.Capricorn]

It's always a treat to watch both of these gentlemen

[@Discodaggers1]

Why do they keep picking 9 bowlers in the ODI side? Absolutely bizarre.

[@SWJ_]

Batting Overton at 7 or 8 as a pure batsman is beyond strange. He’s a solid all-rounder, either use him as such or pick a proper batsman.

[@ce11amitkumaryadav83]

​@@SWJ_Curran playing at 6 make no sense TBH

[@ce11amitkumaryadav83]

ENG should play this sqaud in CT 25 Duckett Salt/jacks/Crawley Root Stokes Brook Buttler Livingston Woakes/topley Archer Wood Rashid

[@SWJ_]

@@ce11amitkumaryadav83 Batting’s very thin there though. I like Overton as a no.8 but he should be bowling as well, not just a batsman.

[@Discodaggers1]

@@ce11amitkumaryadav83 for some reason you typed 'at 6' in the middle of your comment...

[@KrisAdamsTV]

I love this podcast. Its important to listen to the important people. People don't last forever.

[@jiteshkumar3774]

Ian Chappell criticised english commentators. And who are those commentators every body knows.

[@milindm7815]

​@@jiteshkumar3774 When did he do, any link plz??

[@cliveatwood4752]

Flat track bully is a batter that can only make runs on good pitches. Not a team that wins test matches on flat pitches. That was never a bad thing before but now it's used against England.

[@musa7010]

Thank you for schooling two very ignorant people who don't know anything about their cricket

[@SWJ_]

Picking 3 spinners to go to New Zealand is one of the most inexplicable things Baz/Stokes have done. And that’s not a small list.

[@ce11amitkumaryadav83]

Macculum wants to give a big party , that's why he has taken everyone to NZ 😂😂😂😂😂 Even how root is more than enough in NZ turfs , no point taking 3 spinners Why the hell they r not picking any back-up opener and middle order players Safeguarding pope ????

[@md.shafayethossain9141]

It would be better if u add timestamps in these podcasts. Who agrees with me??

[@faisalrattani9154]

Bazzball 3.0 can be a balance between Bazzballers and traditional batters. 3+3 in top six. They might not be as devastating on flat surfaces but still good on all surfaces.

[@aaronread7988]

You just described a normal cricket team.

[@faisalrattani9154]

@aaronread7988 Exactly!

[@aaronread7988]

@@faisalrattani9154 And then England will claim they invented it and saved cricket!

[@shohaibkhalid1140]

2 of the best great podcast always great to watch you both

[@Skbalouch.588]

❤❤❤ 0:21

[@alenton81]

If you want experts dissecting England regularly losing, with batsman averaging in the 30s, then these are the ideal two.

[@thomridgeway1438]

Yes, you hit the nail on the head, that's the problem. You can not have three of your Top Six averaging in the low 30's. You also can not have your spin bowlers incapable of bowling a side out on a 5th day, or your fast bowlers not able to bowl more than one test match at a time before they break down and are out for a whole Summer.

[@abhishektoshniwal7631]

A very smart back handed compliment

[@alenton81]

@@abhishektoshniwal7631 indeed 🙂

[@satnav0961]

Granted they both averaged 37. They were in a fine era of test cricket. Ambrose, Walsh, mcgrath, Warne, pollock, Donald, waqar, akram...

[@alenton81]

@satnav0961 True, it was tongue in cheek, comparing them to Pope/Crawley... but they are not the great players they think they were.

[@jeffcollyer7802]

Ollie Robinson is a fine bowler , but there is definitely something going on behind the seanes. Weather it’s his personality or attitude, but his not playing for England again

[@AdamJensen2011]

Potentially his injury record?

[@Lawless2401]

We are waiting for you 😁 🇳🇿

[@GagandeepSingh-zp4in]

Great discussion

[@ashosein48]

Great pod cast, but let's talk Eng cricket. For those of you that understand the game of cricket is all about, what skills are need for a bowler, [slow and fast], and what skills needed to be a batter. I my humble opinion as a coach and someone who grew up in a period of the great West Indian teams of Viv, Holden, Lloyd, and co, taught me that cricket, as we say in the Caribbean, is unconquerable, the only team that came close is the West Indies. England in this era of Stokes and McCullum, they are trying to pigeon hole the game of test cricket and you can't do that, because of the length of time it take to play a game. Batting is Dynamic and that applies to all formats. By saying that this is the only way we want to play, {batting} will only work for a short time. Cricket is a game of personalities, not just one characteristic, and that is what England is missing.

[@supremegeneral2424]

I disagree with the county championship misalignment argument. County Championship performances still do produce the players for England, it’s just the goalposts have changed, they are looking to identify certain roles and abilities they want in the team and using different stats than just pure runs and wickets to do so. It’s a lot easier to teach someone some skills than completely retrain their mentality or height or speed etc. This is the natural progression of sports like moneyball in baseball or what people like Brighton have done in football, it’s a different view and evolution to a more in-depth data driven approach. Every ball in county championship is getting tracked now so more data is available for analysts to shift through and breakdown to try and get at what they want

[@DK-tt1zt]

Does Athers get paid every time he interrupts Nasser?

[@dg490-n6p]

Absolutely right. Give Nasser space to comment.

[@smorg17]

Glad someone else said it

[@Pricelessmile]

The batters have no consequences. They just play hard and aggressive and if it doesn't work then oh well. But it doesn't always need someone to play like that. It needs players to adapt

[@mariamali7701]

Bazball is a red herring to England’s spin batting issues. Pre bazball, they were poor on flat decks in sub continent as well as spin. This team has won more tests in Pakistan than England teams combined of past have won

[@Malcolm-fk4rr]

The bizarre thing is that the current set up doesn't want anybody to graft for a draw in any circumstances - rather lose in 3 days than fight from a struggling position.

[@AhmedHasan-r3b]

Bang on Robinson should have been given a contract and is a very good bowler who has the stats

[@satnav0961]

Ollie Robinson at Durham is very unlucky not to get a look in

[@Vis-UK]

Dont understand why they cant have the buying option as football clubs in Europe have. It takes a time to build a team and then they have to go to auction again. Why not buy players on contract as football clubs do. You can then build young uncapped players

[@JamesWhite-wv8vc]

Would have been the perfect time to give Rew the gloves

[@najamussahar9053]

england need short players like ben ducket who can play sweet. Because for Tall player sweep will be a challenge

[@roha7792]

Kevin Peterson,Alister Cook and Hayden scored lot of runs and won the series for their respective countries.Tall players reach are bigger so their reach is bigger.

[@asifgitaz4720]

Both are genius man cricket god

[@jonny4866]

Are england not just flat track bullies? that’s my feeling

[@willkirkup2311]

bit simplistic

[@kennethcrowther2277]

Rotating bowlers for conditions but not batsmen has pretty much been the approach of all teams more or less.

[@nicknarr6969]

Proteas not mentioned 😢

[@ads2686]

the men's or women's team? I'm sure they spoke about the new Zealand south africa final in the last podcast

[@Telugu_Vlogs_Off]

don't worry sir England now have a friend Ind which are even struggling than Eng against spin

[@AbdulRazaq-v8q]

Dukket Lawrance Jamie smith Root Brook Stokes Atkinson Woakes Wood Archer Bashir

[@hamayoonshah1990]

nice to see the Nelson Mandela Book in the shelf.

[@Hunchbacc]

6&5… Well atleast no draws boys….

[@jiteshkumar3774]

Ian Chappell criticised english commentators. And who are those commentators every body knows.

[@gwarhnden]

You don't need to post this comment 5 times mate

[@jiteshkumar3774]

@@gwarhnden oh but he said it.

[@garyreeve]

If England are saying Bashir has a"high ceiling" ..surely ahmeds is higher and that's who should be playing alll the time ??

[@ce11amitkumaryadav83]

Both Rehan and Bashir are trash spinners Leach is 10 times better than both

[@user-lx8vz6oc2b]

we are a good side but this constant rush to finish games early drives me mad

[@RsR6969]

It’s a common theme these days in test matches around the world. Teams have forgotten they are still scheduled for five days and not three or four. Building an innings is slowly going out of the game.

[@rommels2108]

They literally had a great player in sam curran. Could have a developed into a great all rounder but they have handled him so poorly.

[@jpfreely34]

Srsly such a shame that Dawson is not playing for England..

[@SohaibTariq-j4t]

Bazball born in Rawalpindi in 2022 Bazball buried in Rawalpindi in 2024

[@hectorlp1298]

By its social nature cricket is more given to cliques than other sports. Players of roughly even ability get selected if their "face fits". Atherton and Hussain are two good examples. Their records are mediocre in Test and County. I'm sure their were others of their era who were just as good. The clique that runs English cricket is the Stokes-McCullum (SM) clique but behind them is an ECB clique. As long as SM satisfy that clique they'll stay in power. The Oz Ashes will be determinative whatever other criteria the ECB has. I like both pundits, compared to others, but a lot of what they say is questionable. For example, I watched a lot of County this Summer and there are definitely better spinners than those for whom they're plumping. It wont matter, though, since none pf them will make any difference on Oz wickets. In this regard the treatment of Robinson will hamper the quest for the Ashes.

[@kevwiz369]

It was like 11 Tino Best batting after Flintoff said something. Call it what it was. Don't use Bazball as an excuse. England batsmen against spin= horrifying to watch. Dreadful. If they played like that 10 years ago, you guys would call all of them a bunch of tailenders. I

[@ads2686]

England's men's and women's teams are obsessed with playing sweep shots against Spin. When years ago the best batsmen in the world used their feet and hit straight or with the spin and only brought out the sweep every now and then. England start playing it from the 1st over. Jamie Smith showed how you play spin. Lara, Tendulkar and ponting always used their feet or rocked back onto the back foot.

[@aaronread7988]

would love an @thegradecricketer double date with you guys. Love the genuine banter you guys have

[@gunjanmahanta6948]

An average test side = A very good side on CERTAIN conditions !!!!! What's more N Hussain like than this ???

[@hasanahmad]

Almost as if England has to play a different team in Sub contintent

[@Waldemar-10811]

The content is great as always, but the number of ad breaks is making this podcast almost unwatchable. A couple is fine but you've taking the p*ss

[@ads2686]

better just listening to the podcast doesn't have any breaks on that. Obviously this will be sky trying to get some youtube money.

[@新型コロナは空事です]

The brave browser, bro. It has a built in ad blocker. Just download it and you are set. There is one thing though, every now and then google works out a way of overcoming the ad blocker. When that happens you may have to un-install it, then re-install it. I have only had to do that 3 or 4 times in the last decade.

[@srikar1881]

Why don't u SENA ( South africa, England, Newlzeland,Australia) countries prepare dry pitches like pak prepared by putting fans and heaters for your domestic matches and groom uar younger generation crickters to play spin easily.

[@andymaidment111]

29 contracts and Tom Banton ain't one. Mental.

[@TSOTL-0302]

Disgraceful tbh, such a huge talent being left out.

[@Malcolm-fk4rr]

I doubt Banton will ever be picked by England again. He is making the fatal mistake of actually making runs in county Cricket!!

[@robs6952]

Pretty sure if Vince was younger, he would be right up Baz & Ben’s street

[@andrewharris1837]

England should take note of how NZ played in India😊

[@Daniel-e2h1w]

disappointing finish to the series considering how well we battled back in the first test. Pretty clear Pakistan didn't want to play a balanced style of cricket with reverting to an all spin attack for the last 2 but that's the elements and we as a nation have to adjust to that. Lack of runs from players who aren't great vs spin should allow the coaching team to adjust for the next series

[@satnav0961]

Will they go back to jonny bairstow? Bazball flat track expert.

[@andrewrobinson8698]

Will anyone ever criticise Rob Key again, all to friendly both, where is Bob when you need him!

[@Mhjeffrey027running]

RE: Horses for Courses for batsmen, Australia have tried that in India last tour (Pete Handscomb would normally not get a look in but his ability to play spin got him a few tests) and are looking to do the same in Sri Lanka next year (talk of Maxwell getting a recall for both ability to play spin and to bowl spin himself)

[@AdhilNundhlal]

Eng winning in nz will be an upset

[@rajenpatel3552]

Trescothick needs to go. He is just a yes man

[@vybhaveswaraiah7114]

England Cricket simply lack common sense honestly speaking. This Bazball thing is simply ridiculous

[@andrewrobinson8698]

Get Key on and grill him, he is having an easy ride for a run of rubbish results

[@amitm2692]

ENG still has a chance to qualify at the bottom of the WTC points table....

[@jibsmokestack1]

Stuck with ETH? Hahahahahaha!

[@debankyajyotidas5495]

I don't know why Josh bohanon is not selected he has performed so well pope is very much inconsistent

[@peterwaugh5881]

Stokes : Hasn't bowled much at all and hasn't scored with his bat....Jus' sayin'.....

[@ce11amitkumaryadav83]

Last 32 ininings 940 runs Avg = 31 Hundred - 1 Fifty - 5 ( 3 vs Windies in a single series ) Nothing to say about bowling TBH 31 avg over span of 19 test doesn't justify his position In India and Pakistan series in Asia - Absolute disgrace performances If I remove that 155 at lord's in ashesh , his avg drops to 26 in 19 test

[@amitendrakumarsingh4121]

Please don't insult Pak cricket by repeatedly saying THAT bad a pitch THAT BAD a conditions. The English can't play spin. Period. Look at Ben stokes in the last innings, Made an absolute joker out of himself

[@Sree99441]

Flat track bullies for sure . Athers

[@manpalsingh800]

Play bethel in place of pope

[@liamanderson6191]

You lavish Joe root constantly about how good he is but when is anyone gonna point out elephant in room when backs against the wall and we need a big innings in tricky conditions from our best batter he turns into a mouse more often then not

[@ads2686]

yeah they never mention how he has never scored a century in Australia. Don't think you can be regarded as one of the best if you haven't scored centuries in Australia, England, India & south africa. Even new Zealand as well considering they have pretty bowler friendly wickets.

[@amansparekh]

ranchi 2024, west indies this summer, Lords 2022 chase single-handedly, headingley and edbgaston that year as well!!

[@liamanderson6191]

@@ads2686 constantly goes on the missing list even though there is examples of course but when you need him to pull one out the bag for you when wickets are tumbling he bottles

[@aaravn08]

@@liamanderson6191 yea but which of the current generation can consistently do that? only kohli in t20s but it's not a single player that always plays well in tricky situations

[@liamanderson6191]

@ but over his whole career you can’t really name more than 4/5 times for the amount of games he’s played when he’s meant to be a top batter that we’ve needed and he’s pulled it out imo

[@sarveshgaurav]

Eng csnt play spin.

[@omarkhan6628]

First one to watch! Wahoo 🎉

[@manpalsingh800]

England is losing continuously in cricket-match

[@farleymarly2575]

Dam both look so old now

[@TSOTL-0302]

People age? 😮, imagine my shock.

[@thrusta100]

1994 was 30 years ago...

[@atiquehalim5527]

a1

[@roopeshkkurup]

Spin tracks or whatever? seriously guys....grew up admiring u guys...just check England's record on the tracks other than roads 😳😳wake up nd smell the bloody coffee legends... broadcaster saving or whatever 😊👍👍

[@zmscreativity8819]

Second comment