Fast and Furious

“The shorter the format, the more it’s up in the air,” Hussain says. “Someone has a good day and the match is won.” In other words, anyone can beat anyone. Scotland have beaten England in a 50-over match before (in 2018) and have a genuine chance of doing it again in a Twenty20.

With this in mind, I have a theory that I want to run past Hussain. It goes like this: T20 is a bowler’s game in disguise. After a pause, I get qualified agreement. “Batters will win you matches. Bowlers will win you tournaments.”

Of course, everything is geared for the batter in T20: flat pitches, short boundaries, fielding restrictions, very tight wides, ever more efficient bats, the list goes on. “Michael Holding said they shouldn’t bother with bowlers and just put up a bowling machine. But there’s only one effective way of bringing down a scoring rate, and that’s to take wickets. That’s why Pakistan consistently do well.”

So, let’s look at England’s most important bowlers. “Adil Rashid’s four overs in every match are like gold dust,” Hussain says. Rashid is now 36 and as good as ever; better, perhaps. “He has the variations, the accuracy and the consistency. And he’s equally good bowling to right-handers as left-handers.” And then there’s fast bowler Jofra Archer. “He jogs in and makes it look easy as he bowls at 90-plus miles an hour,” says Hussain. It was Archer’s pace that gave England the edge in the final of the 50-over World Cup of 2019, in the Super Over that allowed England to squeak home.

Since then, Archer has endured a nightmare time with injuries, but he’s now back in the squad. “Jofra is key. And he’s box-office,” says Hussain. “He bowls so close to the stumps that his bouncer is really hard to avoid. Fingers crossed he’ll stay fit. Who knows how many more injuries he can take.”

Jos Buttler led England to victory in the last T20 World Cup, in Melbourne in 2022, but he was also captain during their disappointing campaign in the 50-over World Cup last autumn, when they didn’t make the knockout stage. It’s always tempting to put this kind of flop down to a failure in leadership, but Hussain is kinder. “He was leading a side that was coming to an end. There were bad decisions made on and off the pitch, like choosing to field in 40-degree heat and high humidity because the stats said batting second gave an advantage. But certainly he and [chief coach Matthew] Mott are under a little pressure.

“I think the winner will be one of the usual suspects, India, Australia or England, but the West Indies have a decent chance. They’ve won it twice and have home advantage.”

Jofra Archer is box-office. Fingers crossed he stays fit

After the tournament, England will be back playing Test cricket, which means we’ll have to talk about Bazball again. In the past half-century the England Test team have gone through two long periods of truly desperate results. One of these ended when Ben Stokes took over the captaincy two years ago. The earlier run ended under Hussain’s captaincy.

“I had a great fear of failure as a player,” says Hussain. “The idea of going out to enjoy myself simply didn’t occur – until my last innings, when I had no future. And I enjoyed it.” It was against New Zealand. Hussain reached his century and then hit the winning runs, both with flowing cover drives that were not exactly his trademark.

“When you have no fear, you generally play better – but at the key moments you have to be ruthless. There’s a time not to Bazball.” When England played Australia at Lord’s last summer, they lost a match they should have won because they were suckered into playing hook shots.

There’s one question I’ve always wanted to ask Hussain. I was in South Africa for the 50-over World Cup of 2003, and in the crucial match against Australia he made the startling decision to give the 49th over not to Andy Caddick, but to a lad called James Anderson. Did he see the brilliance of Anderson even then?

“I went on gut feeling, as always, and I had faith in a young cricketer. People weren’t picking his slower ball, and I thought if he bowls it to Andy Bichel, Bichel will hit it in the air. He did, too. Unfortunately he hit the scoreboard!”

England lost. “In the evening I looked for Jimmy to say sorry. He was playing pool, and I said, ‘My fault. I put too much pressure on you.’ He just shrugged and potted the black.”

Twenty years later, Anderson’s farewell match is set for July. But first, there’s the T20 World Cup. So get set for a cricketing carnival that raises the curtains on a summer of sport.