Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features,
and debate from the quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell and I'm in London, where I was at
the annual luncheon awards at the Cricket Writers' Club earlier in the week. That is the organisation
that represents the media predominantly in the UK but also abroad, so we dished out annual awards.
One of which was a trophy in memory of the late Bob Willis. It was for an England player of the
year, and that went to Jonny Bairstow, who you're going to hear from later in the show as well. But we
were very impressed that he turned up because he was on crutches after the nasty injury that
he suffered not too long ago. Other award winners included Katherine Brunt. She was honoured for the
longevity of her 18-year England career and the impact she has had both on and off the field.
But it's always a good lunch. Jim, you would approve; it started at midday and went on until
about 11pm after some of us had shifted onto a nearby pub. So, a convivial occasion to mark the
end of England's season. They only kicked you out because you ran out of soft drinks.
Someone had to kick us out. I'm sure someone kicked on, but it sounds like a good party, and I have to
tell you that in Sydney, it's a good place for a party because there's no point going outside. It
rains and it rains, and it rains and we're very close to the world record for Sydney for rain,
which is about 1600ml a year in 1860, I think. So sadly, that's affecting some cricket, but
it didn't stop New South Wales from playing in Western Australia and losing a one-day game,
which took only 34 overs and then losing a Shield match which took less than three days. A name out of
that to look at, unusual name, Teague Wyllie, an 18-year-old from Western Australia who made a
hundred, so think of Teague Wyllie. He could be the next Ricky Ponting, so they say.
I'm Sunil Gupta for All India Radio in New Delhi, where I'm listening enviously to people defrosting cars
in Manchester and Jim having a row and all that in Sydney. Right now, the first meek and shy tendrils
of autumn are creeping in. We don't run the ac's mostly during the day now, so that's a blessing.
But you're talking about new players, Jim, we've just had the Irani trophy match,
which is the Ranji trophy champions against the rest of India. The rest of India, obviously,
are our upcoming stars and they had three more who have been unearthed or been around, but really
had displayed their wares. One is Sarfaraz Khan. He's hit his umpteenth century in the first-class
game and then there are two fast bowlers Mukesh Kumar, who is a swing bowler and the last one is
Kuldeep Sen. You might have seen him in the IPL playing for the Rajasthan Royals. He picked up
eight wickets in that game of the Irani trophy. He is now one of the net bowlers being taken to
Australia, as is Mukesh Kumar for the T20 World Cup. You'll hear a lot of these guys. Remember,
I spoke about Suryakumar Yadav, well really, he played very well in the ODI series that had just
concluded with Australia and South Africa, which India won, incidentally, 2-1. But these are the
new names that are coming up and I am so happy to see some new names, new talent coming up here in India.
Yeah, it's great always learn about new names to look out for. But what of some of those
established names and we'll start the programme by talking about one of those because he will be
missing from the men's T20 World Cup for India. It's a huge blow that's been dealt. Fast bowler,
Jasprit Bumrah, one of the world's very best, ruled out of the tournament. So, he's suffering
with a stress fracture of the back - something which he felt come on just before India's recent
T20 series with South Africa. He'd already missed the Asia Cup before that with a stress injury;
that was on the other side of his back. This one is believed to be on the other side. Sunil,
just go into the importance of Bumrah to the India side and the effect it'll have
through him not being there. I was thinking of Bumrah and his bowling style and you've all seen it.
And to my mind the sort of impression I get, or the image that comes in front of me is
Picasso vs Monet. So, you have a Monet like James Anderson; you have Picasso, all angles,
you know. And it was bound to happen. It happened a couple of years ago. He put so much stress on
his back in the way that he comes in bowls and all the elbows flying everywhere. I'm surprised
it hasn't happened more often. So that's one part of it. The other part of it is, I firmly believe
in having come from the corporate world, that no one is indispensable. He's a great fast bowler,
no question about it. But no one is indispensable. And in fact, I always see this. I remember when I
was in corporate, it's an opportunity for somebody else to step into those shoes.
Right, here's the biggest platform for their World Cup, T20, what better.
I've just given you two names, Kuldeep Sen and Mukesh Kumar. And there are so many others.
There's Shami there in the background. There's Siraj. There's so many of these are there,
they should pick up the mantle. I honestly do believe it's a blessing in disguise. I go back to
you might remember this Ali, 2011 and Zaheer Khan in England and he was taken there when he had a
lot of problems with injuries, and he played in the first Test at Lord's. He got injured in that
Test, couldn't have another bowler and I remember MS Dhoni coming in bowling because he didn't have
another bowler. We don't want that to happen. We don't want him breaking down in the middle
of the tournament, so yes, it's a blow. It's not a devastating blow. I don't think it's a blow that
India will not recover from, in fact I think they can grow from strength to strength. We are seeing
some new bowlers coming up and frankly, I think now is the time for him and the selectors and the
Board to say we need to monitor your workload. If and when you come back into cricket, don't
play all the formats, right. You've got to be able to ensure that he is ready for only some of them.
Because he cannot take the strain and he will not be the same bowler when he comes back because,
Jim you'll know, it's somewhere then the back of your mind. 'I've got a stress fracture and it's
because of the action that I have.' You're never going to be the same, at least I hope he will.
But it's going to be very difficult. India were not at their best at the Asia Cup, not managing
to make the final, but they have beaten both Australia and South Africa in T20 series since
then. So where do you think India are at as a team? And now without Bumrah?
They're vulnerable, but they need some of their established players to turn up a bit more, like Rohit and Kohli,
Panja, Pant. Just in what Sunil was saying because Pat Cummins made a very strong point about
the Australian team and the huge push we have going on here with Cameron Green to be a member
of the squad. Cameron's made the point that you know 'one of the reasons I'm playing now is that
I was managed in the early part of my career,' and they want to do the same with Cameron Green. So,
this is a fair issue in the game to consider when you look at the amount of cricket involved.
And there has to be a way of keeping these players right for the big games and that's what I've been
writing today about this T20 World Cup. It's not a matter of being the best side all the time, it's
being the best side when it matters. So, we've got these issues around players and India's resources
at the moment are tested. But they won't be the only ones. They'll be in the shake up for sure,
and to me this kind of cricket, in particular, is always a raffle.
Well, another man who won't be featuring at the T20 World Cup in Australia this month is England's star batter Jonny Bairstow.
Bairstow won the Bob Willis trophy earlier this week after being voted England's Player of the
year by the Cricket Writers' Club and he received the trophy on crutches when he got up on stage at
the annual lunch in London. He was also on this incredible sort of half wheelchair, kneeling
contraption to help him get around a little bit earlier as well. It was a great effort that he
made to travel down to London. Bairstow made six Test centuries in 2022, including some incredible
counter attacking knocks. But he is now out of action for the rest of this year after what was
a really nasty and freak injury, slipping on a steep tee box when he was playing golf and
breaking his leg in multiple places. I caught up with him a couple of days ago to ask him how he's doing in his recovery.
Yeah, it's, erm, certainly at the start that cycle, really. I had surgery two
weeks ago. I went down to see the specialist a couple of days ago and they were happy. So,
I've had my staples out and what have you so, in the coming days there'll be something that
comes out and I'll be able to update a few more people on exactly what I've done, timescales
and know a bit more about it. So, it's one of those that's a bit frustrating because healing,
you don't know how quickly something heals and things may not, the setbacks and what have you,
but it's just a setback in the grand scheme of careers and you got to take it forward and look at it in a different way.
Are you not quite sure of the time frame and how long it might be before you're ready to come back?
It's gonna be definitely into the new year. There's no doubt about that.
So, unfortunately, it's a rather large injury that was such a freakish thing that's happened.
So, we're definitely not looking at anything to do with 2022, it's definitely starting with 2023, I'm afraid.
You have had an incredible, incredible year, starting with your 100 in Sydney,
which was a pretty sort of backs to the wall effort it was a bright spot in an otherwise
difficult Ashes series for the team. You had a 100 in Antigua, but then the English summer.
Can you identify... first all, let's just keep it really simple. What was the part of the summer,
which innings, which moment did you enjoy the most?
I can't remember any of it.
Do you know what, it's one of those summers, that we'll remember as a group of people and
I'm sure as a cricketing nation and we'll look back and go 'I remember the 2005 Ashes
summer very fondly.' It's that kind of summer of that, I was inspired by the guys in 2005 with
the spectacle they put on and hopeful that we, as a group of people have inspired the
next generation, if you like, to say or however you want to put it or even people that haven't
played the game of cricket that have flicked on and we've entertained them. So, to point out one
thing, I don't think it's fair and it probably wouldn't be one of the hundreds, to honest with you.
What would it be? Well, I just look at the shift in which, from a vocal side of things,
from my way of going about it, from the approach that we tried to go about it, we've been brave
enough to speak about going towards the danger. We've won six out of seven Test matches this summer,
which hasn't been done for a long time. So, we must be doing something right and we've been brave
enough to take that challenge head on. What do you like about Brendon McCullum and working with
him and Stokes in partnership? He's a hell of a bloke. He's a great guy! He's good golf partner
cos handicap should be less than what it is. Yeah, that's always a plus when you're playing on his team.
I just think that the way in which he went about the game and then how he's tried to empower people to play
a game with freedom and bravery is... There's a different way of looking at Test cricket,
which like I mentioned, it's not gonna work every single time, but I think that
understanding that we're playing at the highest level with joy, rather than heaping a load
of pressure on ourselves whilst we're doing it. At times, it can be tricky
to separate the two, is one thing. But then building that relationship with Ben as well.
The relationship is still building and will carry on building. The common vocals that
the speaking about all the way through the summer. You know, you'll have said,
I'm sure when you've spoken to both of them. They're both singing off the same hymn sheet
and the consistent messaging that's been there all the way through is from both of them.
So, I think that's a very strong thing to have as a leadership
pair, because we weren't in a good place at the start of the summer as a group of players;
as England cricket, we weren't really, and it's actually quite interesting to hear the shift of
people now speaking about Test cricket being stronger than white-ball cricket
and then questioning things like the white-ball team. You're going, 'hang on a minute.' 'Ah, well,
yeah, it was not this strong, it's changed. We're in transition.' So we're not really a transition.
Yes, Eoin Morgan has stepped down from captaincy, but other than that there's not many personnel
changes. The bowlers haven't been fit, we're missing five or six people from the white-ball
team that we would have liked, but that's exactly the same as what happened in the red-ball side.
There was five or six people missing in the red-ball side that over a period of time that
we'd have liked to have played, of course. So it 's interesting how the shift then changes from side to side.
With Baz and Ben, the constant messaging has been fantastic and the buy in from the boys has been brilliant too.
Jonny, give us a bit of insight then, to finish with, about what you're doing
with your time when you're injured, because it is a challenging time for a cricketer who
is used to being so busy all of the time. So how are you managing yourself?
To be honest with you, I'm sat on the ice machine at the moment, so that's going to be a huge part of my life for the next
few months, to be quite honest with you. This is going to be a slow process with things. So,
this early stage is the bit that's going to be tricky. Because you need to get all the healing
right. And then you're able to go on. If you try and do things too early, then all of a sudden, it
affects things down the line. So, I've got a few bits that I'm going to do - a university course
and a few other bits like hopefully... Really? What are you gonna study?
It's a strategic leadership course, that we're doing at the moment. So that kind of thing and hopefully not get
abused if I come down and see all you guys. I'm excited to spend time at home because over the last...
I've been fortunate over the last 12 or 14 years, I haven't actually had a winter off at home. So
you've got to try and take a positive out of a negative if you can do that. So, spending a bit
of time here with loved ones and see some friends that you don't get to see through the winter,
transitioning from Australia to Pakistan to South Africa, wherever it may be.
Congratulations on the year that you've had and on winning the Bob Willis trophy from the Cricket Writers Club.
Cheers, thank you ever so much. I really appreciate it and really excited to be back out there
and hopefully I do well so you're writing good stuff and not the other stuff... always good stuff.
Well, that was Jonny Bairstow speaking to me as the Cricket Writers' Club England player of
the Year, winner of the Bob Willis trophy. He was speaking to me lounged on the couch with
his leg in its cast, in his boot cast stretched out in front of him. He had his dog join him on
the couch at one point as well. His mum was in the background. So, I think he might have been
his mum's house. Jim, I know you were mightily impressed by Bairstow's form over the English
summer, and it is a real shame for him and for England, isn't it?
A shame for all of us because we want to see the best players playing the game and he'll be missed. I liked his commentary
on Brendon McCullum. He inferred that he's instilled a freedom and bravery in the England
team. And if that's the case, if they can maintain the momentum and consistency through all of this,
then they will be a force even without him. But he added some serious grunt to the middle order,
particularly in places where the boundary's easy to clear and the pitch is in good nick. So,
he'll be sorely missed in the next few weeks.
Well, that's all we've got time for on this week's Stumped. I'll say thanks to Jim Maxwell and to Sunil Gupta and of
course to you for listening and we'll see you again next week. Bye for now.