Nasser Hussain reflects on Tom Hartley's seven-wicket haul and Ollie Pope's 196 as England give India "wake-up call" with stunning comeback win in Hyderabad - "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"
Sunday 28 January 2024 15:01, UK
Sky Sports Cricket's Nasser Hussain hails the seven-wicket Tom Hartley and Ollie Pope's sublime century, plus England's belief, after the stunning turnaround win over India in Hyderabad...
What an incredible Test match. In fact, a couple of incredible Test matches with West Indies beating Australia and England pulling off a remarkable victory. It shows why it is the best format.
It was a brilliant, amazing turnaround from England to go 1-0 up in the series. Under captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, the team continue to thrill.
It shows they 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.
The present regime know what they want. They're going to stick with that and even when they're behind, they will back the cricketers to turn it around.
They have shown they are a side not to be messed with.
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.
As for Pope, he was a player who has not done brilliantly in India before and had not got runs in the first innings.
When England were five down, they were up against it and he had the lower order and a tail to bat with and, boy, did he do that well.
It was an incredible, incredible innings - his defensive technique, his shot selection. He gave his team something to bowl at.
I think he has thrived from moving up to No 3, thrived under McCullum and Stokes - another player to thrive when they've said to him 'take the fear of failure out of your game'.
I always felt with Pope that there was a bit of fear of failure in there so second time around, having only got one in the first innings, there would have been a fearful cricketer. But with Stokes and McCullum they've just said, 'go out and do it again'.
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.
But it is a wake-up call for India as England have shown Bazball can work in these conditions.
I wouldn't recommend going 190 runs behind every time, though!
Follow over-by-over text commentary from the second Test between India and England, in Vizag, live on skysports.com and the Sky Sports App from 3.30am (first ball at 4am).
