ICC T20 World Cup preview: Politics, six-hitting & England's chances

24:47Nas:talking points and we hear what the managers and players have to say as well. That is the Sky Sports Premier League podcast, available wherever you listen to your podcasts.

25:08Ath:Well, to talk all things T20 in the forthcoming T20 World Cup, I'm delighted that we've been joined by Freddie Wild, who's a T20 analyst these days for a variety of franchises. We know that because he's always right at the forefront of all the team pictures when the trophies have been won. He's the first one there, like John Terry, holding up the big trophy for RCB Desert Bipers and potentially London Spirit this year. You've moved over the Thames from the Oval to Lourdes. Freddie, how are you? Good to see you. Yeah, I'm good, thank you, and thanks for having me on.

25:45Nas:Are you a T20 specialist, Freddie? I mean, have you given up test match cricket? Have you just moved down the franchise road for money? I still enjoy test cricket, but yeah, I've not worked as an analyst on test matches. So yeah, I'm sort of committed to the new age of white ball cricket and freelancing around the world. Ching, ching.

26:08Ath:We've just been chatting about Harry Brook and his captaincy of England. Obviously, he's about to head into his first global tournament as England's white ball captain. There's been a lot of discussion about Brook's suitability for the role after what happened in Wellington and various places. But he's obviously going to captain England in this tournament and we hope it goes well for him and the team. But I was thinking about the options and you've been working at the Desert Vipers. And Sam Curran, although he's not been the official captain of the Desert Vipers team, he has done it quite a lot over the last two years and obviously successfully.

26:46Ath:So could you just give us an indication of what your thoughts are about him as a potential captain in T20 or white ball cricket as a potential alternative if that comes to pass? well yeah i mean if if if um for whatever reason they did look for a change he would be someone who would be um top or high up that list in my opinion um i mean he's been excellent to work with not only at the desert vipers but at the oval invincibles where although sam billings has obviously been the captain um sam curran's been part of our leadership group and um bill burham him have got a great relationship and they were sort of you know very closely involved in a lot of the tactical discussions there.

27:27So I've had quite a lot of exposure to him as a tactician and as a leader. And I've got nothing but good things to say about him, really. I mean, he's a little bit like he is as a cricketer, fiercely competitive and wants to win desperately. And that's sort of channeled into his decision-making. He's not afraid to make tough decisions. He also leads from the front in the way that, you know, both with bat and ball, which I think is always a good thing and probably takes a bit of pressure off him as a player. He's not a captain who seemingly struggles with that extra pressure. In fact, he thrives on it.

28:00And I think that, you know, you can't avoid any complications about your captain being out of form and should he be in the side with Curran. I think he's elevated by the role. So for me, he'd definitely be someone who would be in that discussion, as I said, if England did decide to move on at any point.

28:16Ath:Mention the fact that you're principally an analyst with the franchises that we talked about, Desert Vipers there and London Spirit in the 100 this year. and RCP obviously very successfully in the IPL last year. But you were with England for a little bit as well, although that involvement has come to an end now. I mean, it wasn't a particularly successful time with England when you were there, and it was a team that was going through a transition from this great era of white ball success under Owen Morgan through to Joss Butler, Matthew Mott as coach, and onwards. How do you look back on your time with England and how that transition was managed in a way?

29:01Yeah, it's a good question. I think you're right to sort of frame it as a transitional period. I mean, it's always, I think, difficult coming from a time where England had such success. There was naturally going to be a sort of loyalty to the guys who had got them to that point. I don't know if you remember, even in the 23 World Cup, initially, Harry Brook wasn't actually in that squad and then was added to the squad. I think that almost encapsulated the sort of tension at the heart of that period, which was like trying to shift towards younger players, but also feeling a loyalty towards older players.

29:31And that loyalty, for example, was a big part of, I think, from the outside at least, and you guys will know this as well, part of what made Morgan's side so successful because he almost gave these guys the freedom to play and was like, we're not going to drop you despite runs of poor form. But then I think in that period, there probably was a moment where they needed to shift slightly. And I think they may were possibly a bit slow to do that in hindsight. I think that a few people who've been involved, both Motti, Joss probably have acknowledged that as well. Looking back, Ankezi, I'd have thought.

30:02It's just, it's a difficult thing to do, but I think that probably would be one of my main reflections was just understanding when is the right time to shift from an old player who's done excellently to the, you know, the exciting new talents.

30:16Nas:Just tell us about a role of an analyst. and your role in particular, Freddie. I mean, me and Ath have never played and never been behind the scenes in a franchise dressing room. We will go off to the World Cup in a couple of days. We will get quick viz. We'll send us all the information and we will choose what to do with that information. Is that how you work with all these teams? You just send the information and it's up to you what you do with it? Or do you literally stand up in a meeting the night before a game and show people grids and various other things? What is your role behind the scenes?

30:53Well, you sort of have to be, in some respects, you have to be adaptable to different environments. So there are some instances where there have been teams I've worked with. Before I worked with the teams I work with now, when I was making my way as an analyst, I'd work remotely and just sort of send stuff on a WhatsApp group and you wouldn't even have any, you know, I wasn't there. uh now i'm you know traveling around the world and an analyst on site but even then there's a variety of ways in which you give that information at rcb i'm probably a bit more involved in some of the team meetings there will be times when i do stand up and talk um at the invincibles though with with tom moody we've got a really sort of well-oiled machine there we didn't have as many meetings and it was a bit more conversational in how i'd pass things over so it it depends on on the environment um and yeah there are times when you send stuff and you don't know what's done with it and there are other times when you're right at the coalface and you're involved in a lot more of the sort of detailed discussions day to day about selection tactics bowling plans bowling changes so it varies really and the impression at least from the outside is that under mccullum england have been less focused towards the data side of of things would that be

32:08Ath:an accurate assessment in comparison to what went before or not? I think there's probably two ways of looking at it. The one way where I would say England are sort of involved with data and they take a lot of it on board is probably the sort of pre the team getting together. So Kesey, I had a good relationship with Kesey. I've known him for a long time. I did quite a lot of work quite closely with Kesey and some of the guys in the system at the ECB involved in selection, people like David Corp, who would then feed in information to selection meetings. And I think that would be a really rigorous process at that stage.

32:43And there'll often be quite big sort of dossiers of data, if you like, that would be sent to whether that would be Matthew Mott. I don't, maybe less, slightly less so when Baz took over, but there was still a sort of an emphasis on rigor at that stage. I think it was more, the change for me was more from Motti to Baz was probably that then at the team level, day to day, I was less involved as an analyst. Now, it doesn't mean that Baz was disregarding the information I had. It's just it is a different way of operating. We certainly had fewer meetings, and there was probably a little bit less focus on some of those details, I would say.

33:21So it was a slightly different way of operating. But all the way through my tenure, there was always an attention to detail when it came to the selection side of things. And I think, Ath, you've written about that in the past, stuff about England's focus on release height and understanding how different skills transfer. So that's been one area where they definitely have used it regularly.

33:40Ath:I mean, there's obviously quite a difference, isn't there, between the franchise world and international cricket, because in the franchise world, in effect, your choice is global and albeit you may be restricted by the people you can afford to buy at auction and that kind of thing, whereas international cricket, you're very much restricted by the availability of talent within those national boundaries. But putting your franchise hat on and say you had a limitless range of people to choose from, what would or what does the ideal T20 side look like for you? If you're starting with a blank sheet of paper and you had to put together an ideal looking team, I'm not talking about individuals necessarily, but style of player and bowling kind of combinations.

34:38Ath:What does an ideal T20 outfit look like for you? It's a good question. I'll try and answer it in a relatively succinct way. I mean, I think probably one of the things that stands out in the last few years in particular has been the sort of emphasis on, and we'll probably touch on this when we talk about the T20 World Cup, has been the way that batting has been transformed. So for me, a big focus of compiling a team would be making sure you've got a batting order full of dynamic, aggressive players and probably quite a deep batting order. So you want to be able to bat down to eight, nine, ten. You know, looking at some of the teams that England are naming lately, they're batting all the way to 11.

35:14And I think that that's important because it enables players to play with the freedom. So sort of deep batting order, probably with varied skills as well. You're looking now to try and have guys who can take down both pace and spin, different types of spin, score in different areas, access different sides of the ground. It's about it's a very sort of nerdy word, but it's about optimization. You're trying to get as much out of the 120 balls as you can from a batting perspective. And that's both with the depth of the batting, but also the variety of the players you've got. but then with the bowling attack that is you know as people have often said and I completely stand by it as well is bowling is critically important and for that to have that combination of deep batting and strong bowling you do need to have an all-rounder or two I mean in the IPL recently obviously the introduction of the impact player the 12th player has slightly changed that but even then I think what it has shown is if you can still get all-rounders in you end up with that long batting and the strong bowling.

36:16So yeah, don't neglect the bowling. But in the modern game, as I said, we'll talk about it with this T20 World Cup, batting power is absolutely essential.

36:27Nas:Before we look ahead to that World Cup, I just want to take you back to RCB simply because we want to get our listeners numbers up and more clicks. And specifically, Andy Flower, I mean, what do you think what needed changing RCB to get it over that final hurdle and what do you think makes Andy Flower a serial winner as coach from what you see behind the scenes um so yeah two questions two parts that question I'll deal with the first one um in in terms of RCB I think um I'd had a couple of years at RCB prior to the to when Mo and Andy took over so I've got a little bit of experience of what it was like before although we've begun to start be more consistent at that point in time wasn't there sort of 10 years ago when they had a lot of struggles.

37:12But the general, I think the general theme of our success last year was a shift from focusing on maybe one or two star players to a very deep Indian core. If you look at, there was a great stat that did the rounds until quite recently about RCB's top run scorers. So basically it was Virat, obviously AB and Gale who'd scored a lot, but then there was essentially no other domestic players. And it was particularly that domestic, the absence of other domestic players, which was something we looked to address at RCB and sort of finding good, maybe not elite, but very good domestic players who could contribute regularly and help out Virat and take the load off him with the bat.

37:53And then the other one was obviously, and this has been talked about a lot with RCB, was there had been, I think, historically a neglect of the bowling attack. And that was something, again, we sought to address with the likes of Bhuvikumar, Kroon Alpandia, um josh hazelwood obviously as well and and pulling together a really core bowling attack that could reliably defend totals so it was almost addressing two um stakes of the past which was no reliance on stars and probably an over-reliance on batting as well and andy yeah and andy flower um what makes him a serial winner i mean i think there's a there's a number of things i mean he's an excellent coach obviously who's gone around the world um winning in a variety of places not least international degree, but then domestically, you're going to have to be pretty good at what you do to do that.

38:38I think for me, the thing I've experienced is an attention to detail and a sort of a commitment to a process. There's a lot of there's in cricket. There are, as you guys will know, there's a lot of cliches. People say a lot of things. And quite often in team meetings, things are said, and they're just sort of let to be there and no one really challenges it. Andy will go sorry what do you mean by that or if someone says we need to be bowling on a sort of a classical good length he'll go what do you mean do you mean sort of like six to seven meters or seven to eight meters it's that like extra question um that i think sort of represents a real yeah attention to detail and a rigor that that challenges cliches and i think that's a really important part

39:20Nas:of his coaching you went five minutes there without mentioning dk so well done congratulations

39:28Ath:Shall we have a look at the World Cup then? I mean, England, let's start with England first of all. They're in Group C along with Nepal, Scotland, Italy, West Indies. Just a reflection on their 3-0 triumph in Sri Lanka, first of all. I mean, I saw two of the games. I missed the second because I was on a nine-hour train journey from Leeds to London, which was quite the worst train journey I think I've ever managed in this country. So I missed the whole of the second T20, but I saw the first and the third. What were your reflections on England? I mean, it's pretty, it's not, Sri Lanka are not what they were and certainly haven't been in global events for a long time.

40:11Ath:They're still quite a hard team to beat at home. What did you make of the series, first of all, Freddie? Yeah, definitely. Winning 3-0 in conditions that you're about to play in the World Cup against a side who, whilst they're not particularly strong at the moment, they've still got match winners with bat and ball, actually. People like Nassanka, Chimera, Hassaranga, these are dangerous players. So it's certainly a good series win and they'll take a lot of confidence from that. I think one of the key things actually is talking about the conditions. I actually say arguably the third game was probably the win that I think carried most significance for England because I think England are a side who in good batting conditions are going to be very dangerous.

40:53Clearly, they've got a gun batting order. They've got guys who are used to playing in the IPL on Indian wickets. But I think it's that those lower scoring games potentially where they could trip up. And because England's second stage of the tournament, if they qualify through that group that you just said in the Super 8, I think they're likely to be playing in Sri Sri Lanka at that point, winning in those conditions is going to be really important. And I think that that's actually a thing, a theme I think that will come through in this World Cup is actually we might see two tournaments unfold to an extent.

41:23There'll be the tournament that happens in India where conditions are likely to really favor batting and then the tournament in Sri Lanka where again, there'll be some good wickets, but they're not quite as good as what we'll get in India, I think.

41:37Nas:Yeah, I think that did England some good, actually, not just the wins, but even in those six games they played in with the ODIs before. They played on some good pitches. There were belters and some others. I think Harry Brook described as the worst pitch he's ever played on or whatever. He hasn't played on many bad ones, I have to say.

41:52Ath:If that's the worst pitch he's ever played on, he should try Kingston in 1998.

41:58Nas:He's known for a big con in a press conference, Harry. I saw MS, just the general point about the tournament. I saw an interview MS Doney gave yesterday or the day before about Dew. and you go back to the 2021 World Cup in Dubai and the UAE and Dew was a massive factor. I mean, you win the toss, you know, you have a bowl and you generally chase and win the game. Do you see Dew being a factor February, March, India, Sri Lanka or not as much? Or do you think it's an absolutely vital bit? Well, it's really difficult to say because, I mean, the other day I was watching one of the T20s between India and New Zealand and it was clearly very Dewy during that game.

42:37but what I've found in the last couple of years in the IPL at least is it's been slightly less of a factor I don't know whether the spray that they're being putting on the outfield is more effective I'm not sure exactly what it is but if I can sort of look back at the IPL seasons I've done now the ones from three maybe four years ago I felt like Jew was a bigger factor than it is now I that could be purely just my own experience but it probably will play a role at some point it does typically in that part of the world and it is a massive factor. Hopefully it doesn't affect the tournament in the way that it did in 21 because I think that was a bit of a shame really that it became so dominated by the chasers.

43:20Ath:England, one or two selection issues. Duckett, where is Duckett right now? I mean, his stock has fallen, hasn't it, in the winter, both prior to the Ashes, during the Ashes, should he start will he start he's unlikely to start what do you think it's interesting because when when for the first t20 of the series when banson battled at four i wondered if he was just a placeholder for duckett but then the fact that then yesterday when salt had his back spasm if you're sort of following that logic banson would have moved up to the top and duckett would have gone into the position that he was holding at four i don't know maybe whether i'm reading too much into that sort of selection puzzle um but look banson's done well in the middle order.

44:05I think Banson's actually a player who over the last sort of year or so, I've come up against him a number of times as an analyst. And I'm always thinking, God, this guy is a hell of a talent. He's hard to stop when he gets going. I mean, Duckett also, when he's at his best is fantastic. But as he said, he's had a poor winter. And also now with Curran and Bethel in the side, that sort of emphasis on needing the left-hander is a little bit reduced as well. I think Duckett's elevation in the T20 format was partly because England was searching for that lefty, but they've now got two of them in Bethel and Ducat so I wouldn't be surprised to see if he ended up starting on the outside but you know it's a long tournament and he might end up coming in at some point.

44:45Nas:Old school, new school I mean old school will be your best batters face the most deliveries new school your role would be roles in the side and finishes you know when this side was first announced there were a few eyebrows raised at Banton at four and Harry Brook at five when you've actually looked at it that has been spot on brook you know the finisher role suits him very well would you have those two that way around would you have had him before a ball went down bantam four brook five it's a we know when you frame that question you said old school versus new school one thing um when you guys asked me to come on to this i actually thought about that is a trend that sort of come into the game more recently is that i think actually teams are beginning to shift back to the let's just get your best player in earlier so i think you've seen that with Australia with Tim David he's now batting at number four at times and as run rates have got higher I think there is a developing school of thought which is like guys why are we messing, almost going back to the original point, why are we messing around all along, what do we need you for all those years in the back of the skybox saying no no no we were right Af, thank you Freddie for joining

45:52Ath:there is a point I've always felt where there has been a little bit of over intellectualizing of T20 cricket, actually, more and more. I think it's just a six hitting game, you know, and there was a bit of chat about why is Joe Root not in the T20 side? I mean, I wouldn't have Joe Root in the T20 side. I think, you know, the game boils down to who can hit more sixes at the end of the day. I think in lower scoring games, there can be a little bit more subtlety to it. you might want to get your sort of touch players or players of spin through the middle if it is tricky. But now, particularly with the way the game's going and the way that India are playing in particular, you're right.

46:37It's becoming increasingly about maximize, as I said earlier, maximizing your 120 balls. And with that in mind, I think there is an argument to just try and get your better players in earlier and earlier. And it's probably the same for the bowling as well. I think we've seen India actually start to use Boomer earlier. He started to open the bowling a couple of series ago again it's almost like why are we wasting our ace so guys yeah maybe seven or eight years later but you guys were spot on at the time you're ahead of your time there

47:03Nas:on the back of that if australia had rung you up a month ago the the guru analyst freddie wild and asked you sent you an email saying would you pick steve smith in the australian t20 side for this world cup what would your answer have been probably not um because i think that um i think you'd want Renshaw instead of Smith

47:27not getting into the the detail of the discussion but more around that emphasis on power hitting being predominant I mean Smith has had obviously an excellent big bash I think conditions adapting to conditions in India or in Sri Lanka will be interesting to see how he does that but yeah I probably would not but you've thrown that on me and I've only just had 30 seconds to think about it

47:52Ath:I mean England have got a live chance in this haven't they I mean I would imagine you could probably make a good argument For saying T20 is England's strongest format at the moment And they seem to have a number of strong elements to the game Not least the Salt-Butler partnership at the top of the order Their spin all-round spin options seem pretty favourable Particularly if they're going to be in Sri Lanka for that Super 8 stage I mean, what's a realistic expectation that England should have upon themselves for this World Cup? Because it's quite a while now since they've shone in a global event.

48:33I think minimum would be semifinals. Anything less than that for a side of this calibre would be considered a disappointment. And I think semifinals is almost a pass mark. But even in the last World Cup, I was obviously involved in that when we got to the semis. But there was not really a sense that that had been a success. just because of the nature of the way that England sort of got through the tournament. So I think a big part of it will also just be how well they play. If they play well and beat a strong team or two on their way to the semis and then lose to India, then that also could be deemed a pretty good showing.

49:05But I think if they didn't get to the semis, it would feel like a failure. I do think for what it's worth, I think England's group, Super 8 group, could be a challenge. I think Pakistan in particular are a really dangerous side. They've got some excellent spinners. who've obviously spoken for years about Pakistan having loads of fast bowlers. They've actually now stumbled upon a cohort of very good spinners. We've obviously seen them do well against Australia lately. So I think that there could be some tricky games for England in that Super 8. But yeah, semi-final for me is what I feel like they need to get to.

49:36Nas:Let's talk India. The favourites, the holders, playing at home. I mean, the six-sitting, which we've touched about, the modern T20, about six hitting potential that has gone through the roof with that side they have wonderful bowling options any weakness you can see if you were analyzing the night before an india game what would you offer up as an india weakness in this tournament well they've got a question mark at the top of the order at the moment about sandra samson who's been in some poor form um at the top obviously abhishek sharma who's been absolutely incredible and is probably about to sort of announced himself on the world stage if he hasn't already but at the other end sanju sampson has been struggling so there's a there's a potential ability there for you to get into india early um the other thing as well is maybe their pace depth so obviously boomer and ashdeep are excellent but i think if you can beyond that then there's there's hardick but you can maybe put a little bit of pressure on their seam attack but what they do so well is they've got so many good spinners that um they generally rely on on their spin just as much as their pace i mean they're an incredible side they are probably not quite there yet but they're they can lay claim to to pushing that early 2000s australia in terms of sort of great white ball teams i think that's what that that this team should look at that as an objective over the next three four five years they are um incredibly dominant i think they've not lost a game in a multi-nation tournament for three tournaments now in in 50 over in t20 cricket i mean that's just crazy considering it's a And particularly T20 is meant to be volatile.

51:11Yeah, it's such a fickle game.

51:13Ath:And if you look at their win-loss ratio since the last T20 World Cup, it's way, way ahead of any other full member nation. You know, I suppose T20, of all the formats, form running into it is probably the least relevant, but it's still relevant to some degree, isn't it? 100%. I mean, there's never been a favour. I think, you know, I've listened to you guys preview various T20 World Cups in the last few years, and you often go into it saying, you know, it can be anyone's game. I can never remember a tournament and any T20 tournament, to be honest, or maybe even 50 over tournament for a long time where someone has gone in with such an overwhelming, positive recent record.

51:55And like as the clear favorites as this, they are, you know, they're an amazing side. But they've got to, you know, they've got to, tournament cricket is unpredictable. And we saw last time in the 50 over World Cup, they dominated and then lost in the final. So that will be a challenge for them in front of home, the home crowd. Can they get a World Cup having failed in 2023? But on paper, they look seriously hard to beat.

52:19Nas:Not just tournament cricket's unpredictable. This format and this tournament, you just need about 20 minutes, as South Africa showed in Barbados. You can be strolling to the line and thinking, here we go. we've put it to bed finally and you have a bad 20 minutes and that's what India would like any side you just have to guard against that and attention to detail throughout the tournament that when it comes down to that pressure situation that you don't have that bad 20 minutes but they are undoubtedly favorites but you know history tells you that they can be beaten but it they are some side at the moment at home in particular they are that's group a Indian

52:57Ath:Namibia, Netherlands, Pakistan. And Group B, we've touched on Australia there and with Ireland, Oman, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka are your tip for the tournament, aren't they? I listened to that unbelievable waffle that you put out with DK and Bish on the ICC show, and you said Sri Lanka are going to win it.

53:16Nas:No, no, no. First of all, that was done three months ago in the Women's World Cup in a room in Mumbai somewhere. Secondly, I just said Sri Lanka have been so poor in world tournaments, they will be a bit better this time round. But click-baity people like you, just put that in the headline. England are going to – Sri Lanka are going to win it. So pipe down, Atherton. And they've got a loss 3-0 to England since then. So Sri Lanka at home will still be a thrower. I agree with Pakistan. I think Mike Heston has done some good things there with Pakistan. So, you know, the key is when you turn up to Super 8s is that the conditions could change, could vary from game to game.

53:59Nas:You've got to be absolutely switched on. I've waffled there after you've had a go at me about Sri Lanka.

54:05Ath:And the hardest group, Group D, Afghanistan, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, UAE. That's a tricky old group, isn't it, to work out who's going to go through that? Yeah, I feel for Afghanistan in a way because they come into these tournaments with high hopes and obviously these kind of conditions, you fancy them and they've ended up obviously in the group of death. I mean, for me, New Zealand and South Africa actually both look quite strong heading into this tournament. So I'd be not probably putting my neck on the line to say they'd be the two favorites to go through, but more so than maybe in recent years when you sort of feel like Afghanistan would have a chance.

54:42I think New Zealand and South Africa are both really dangerous at the moment.

54:46Ath:And in your role as a franchise analyst Presumably you'll be absolutely dialed in To this kind of tournament Not only because it's showcasing the best of international T20 But also there are 20 teams in this tournament We haven't touched on any of the associates Italy are there for the first time Nepal are the next great hope of cricket so you're seeing lots of players who are on the fringes that for franchise tournaments could be really good value picks presumably yeah definitely i mean it's been a busy time in t20 cricket full stop and i think you guys have been down under for the ashes but december and january is completely crazy with t20 leagues there are so many of them um it'll probably be quite nice to just have one tournament to watch rather than three or four um but you're right like you you know it's a great opportunity to watch you know the best players in the world or most of the best players in the world under pressure in big games.

55:48And yeah, sometimes talents emerge. And in leagues like the ILT20, you actually have to draft an associate player. You have to pick an associate player in your team in that tournament. And there are more rules like that coming in. So being across the emerging talent pool is a big part of my job for sure. Give us a winner then. Who's going to win it? I can't look past India, I'm afraid. It's a very boring prediction. but they are just, as I said, they're the most dominant team I can ever remember going into a T20 World Cup and they're probably playing a brand of cricket that deserves to win this tournament.

56:23They are playing T20 unlike anyone has ever played it before, really. So they're my favourites.

56:30Nas:I'll keep your earners going, Freddie. Congrats, well done.

56:35Ath:You've gone for Sri Lanka now. I've not gone Sri Lanka at all. I'm going to go for South Africa as ever.

56:43Nas:Coming on the back of a T20 there, SA20, that was an exceptional tournament. A lot of players in form, one or two injuries, but I like them. They were obviously 20 minutes away from winning it last time around. And I do like England. I have to be honest. England do look very strong. You're right, Ath. I think they're third in the rankings. I don't know if that's gone up since the win last night against Sri Lanka. but this is their strongest format, a very big tournament for them.

57:13Ath:Well, that kicks off Saturday. We're recording this on Wednesday. I'm flying tomorrow. Thursday, Nash, you're flying Friday. Friday morning. Friday to Mumbai. Freddie, you'll be watching on, and we'll catch up with you in the summer. Thanks for joining us. Good luck with your hop over the Thames to the London spirit or in desperate need of a bit of the kind of lift that you guys helped to give RCB over the last year or so. Thanks a lot, guys. Thanks for having me.