NASSER HUSSAIN: I didn't care what MCC thought… Gilo got Sachin out

I didn’t care what the MCC thought… Gilo got Sachin out: Former captain NASSER HUSSAIN reflects on 2001 India tour and the controversial bowling of Ashley Giles that could help England tame Kohli and Co

  • The pitches were flat and I just had to think outside the box as captain 
  • Giles frustrated Tendulkar and he was stumped for the only time in Test cricket
  • Root will have to find a way to keep Kohli quiet if England are to win this time 

There were no cunning plans ahead of a Test series which is remembered for the way Ashley Giles bowled at Sachin Tendulkar in Bangalore to have him stumped for the only time in Test cricket.

I wasn’t flying over to India thinking, ‘This is what we’ll do for Sachin’. It evolved as the three-match series went on and we found ourselves going into the last Test one down. As the pitches got flatter and there was nothing in them for our bowlers, I just had to think outside the box as captain.

When we got to Bangalore it was clear 90 per cent of the pitch was flat but outside the right-hander’s leg stump there was a bit of rough and it was spinning out of there.

England spinner Ashley Giles (centre) celebrates the dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar in 2001

So I looked at Tendulkar and thought, ‘Where would they prefer Ashley to bowl? The bit where it isn’t spinning or the bit that gives Giles something to play with?’

And Ash did still target the stumps when he bowled over the wicket, as he showed in the 2005 Ashes when he got Damien Martyn out with a beauty at Old Trafford.

The plan, then, was for the left-arm spinner Giles to bowl over the wicket into that rough and you could see Tendulkar didn’t like it. It frustrated him. And in the end he was stumped by keeper James Foster. 

MCC president Ted Dexter said tactics against Tendulkar were against the spirit of cricket

This came after I had Andrew Flintoff bowling round the wicket into Tendulkar’s ribs in the second Test in Ahmedabad with an almost Bradmanesque bodyline field. At some stage Ben Stokes or Jofra Archer might have to play that enforcer role in the forthcoming series. 

Now, Sachin did get 90 in Bangalore before he was stumped and India did win the series, so it was not as though it transformed things. But it was a way to keep Tendulkar quiet, just as Joe Root will have to keep Virat Kohli quiet if England are to win this time.

The lesson really is that if you can keep control of the run-rate in India then you are in the game. It is knowing when to flick the switch and attack while ensuring the run-rate never gets away from you by learning when to sit in and defend.

Nasser Hussain’s England were denied the chance to level the series in India by rain delays

It helped me that Giles bowled with such control. He rarely bowled a bad ball, so when a new batsman did come in we could have men round the bat. Root’s problem is that Dom Bess, in particular, and to an extent Jack Leach are still bowling the odd bad ball.

Bess’s control of length is not where it should be at the moment, so his captain is giving him protection, like a deep cover, which is commendable in many ways. But when a catch goes begging because you don’t have that extra fielder around the bat, an opportunity is lost and that reflects on the captain as much as his bowler.

Do not set fields for bad balls. Back your bowler to get it right and deceive Kohli and company early on.

Dom Bess is still bowling the odd bad ball and it causes a problem for England captain Joe Root

It is harsh on Giles that to an extent he is remembered more for that plan to Tendulkar than for much of what he achieved with England. He was a better bowler than that. But he did it for me as his captain and he did it for his team.

It was not to the taste of everyone. The then MCC president Ted Dexter said our tactics were against the spirit of cricket and called for a revision of the laws.

But I was more interested in trying to win a Test for England in difficult conditions against India.

And I was more interested in what our coach Duncan Fletcher said about it. He was not the most demonstrative of men but he told me after that Test — when rain played a big part in stopping us winning and levelling the series — that it was one of my best series as captain. That meant more to me than what the MCC thought about it.




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