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There’s no hysteria or venom in the voice of Brydon Carse as he reflects on England’s striking change of attitude midway through their series against India – just a quiet enjoyment of the fact that, from now on, they will not be cricket’s Mr Nice Guys.
Other teams may wonder whether England have ever been ‘too nice’, as Carse puts it, but that misses the point.
With India needing to win the last two Tests to claim the series, and the Ashes fast approaching, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes are keen to eradicate any last trace of softness. The happy-go-lucky Bazballers, if they ever really existed, are officially no more.
It was on the third evening of the third Test at Lord’s that a switch was flicked, as the tourists - in particular captain Shubman Gill - reacted furiously to Zak Crawley’s timewasting, only to vacate the moral high ground by doing exactly the same 24 hours later.
And Carse, the South African-born quick who has made a genuine impact in his first nine months as a Test cricketer, says the Indians’ reaction triggered a realisation in the England camp.
And so, on a tense final morning, a pumped-up Jofra Archer sent Rishabh Pant on his way by bellowing ‘charge that’ in his direction after sending his off-stump for a walk, while Carse and Ravindra Jadeja were involved in a set-to after a mid-pitch collision that had Stokes intervening like a nightclub bouncer.
Brydon Carse has spoken on England’s change of attitude midway through their India series
A switch was flicked as the tourists reacted furiously to Zak Crawley’s time-wasting
Ben Stokes had to intervene after a tangle between Carse and Ravindra Jadeja while the India batsman was trying to complete a run
Carse says he can see now that the fracas was unintentional, with both players looking at the ball as Jadeja pushed for two. Yet it is clear that England’s dressing-room meeting on the fourth evening laid down a marker not just for a thrilling final day at Lord’s, but for the fourth and fifth Tests, starting in Manchester on Wednesday before heading south to the Oval.
‘That incident at the end of day three probably revved up the whole group, and and we had that discussion at the end of day four,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘And I think the common thing was that sometimes, as an English cricket team, we can come across a little bit too nice, whereas the opposition are very quick to get stuck into us.
‘So it was just brilliant that the whole team bought into that. We want to be aggressive and give it a good crack. We want to play the game in the right spirit, but still be up for a bit of a fight and a challenge.
‘When you’re out on that field and you’ve got 10 other blokes all fighting your corner, I’m definitely one that won’t shy away from something like that. It certainly gets your beans going and your emotions going, but it’s also important in those situations to control it.’
You suspect that McCullum, who urged his players to get stuck into Indian No 8 Washington Sundar on the last day at Lord’s after the Indian's confident prediction of victory the night before, will not be suggesting they err on the side of caution. And Carse – a physical presence with a big heart and a healthy dislike of batsmen – is ready to rumble.
It helps that a player who made his Test debut as recently as October, on one of the world’s flattest surfaces in Multan, already feels like an integral member of the team, with the story of last summer’s three-month ban for historic gambling offences now consigned to the past.
He followed nine wickets at 24 in Pakistan with 18 at 17 in New Zealand, and while the Indians have proved tougher nuts to crack – his nine wickets in the series have cost 48 each – he has often bowled without luck. Until, that is, the fourth evening at Lord’s, when he broke open India’s run chase by winning lbw shouts against Karun Nair and and Gill.
Carse made his Test debut in October but already feels like an integral member of the team
Carse's his nine wickets in the series have cost 48 each and he has often bowled without luck
Speaking at an event to plug Step One, Carse says that half-hour was his best in an England shirt, and highlights ‘the rhythm I felt in that spell’. He adds: ‘It was a really key moment before the end of play. The adrenaline, the emotion, the energy that Lord’s was giving – you get drawn into all of that.
‘There have been a lot of spells where I’ve felt in good rhythm, and a little bit of luck hasn’t gone my way. But I am a firm believer that sometimes things change, and it might not happen as quick as you’d like. So to get that little bit of reward felt a lot bigger in the context of the game.’
Conditions have not favoured fast bowling this summer: the lifeless pitches have brought India’s batsmen to the fore, and the Dukes ball has repeatedly gone soft. And while his average speed has dropped a fraction – from 85.5mph at Headingley to 84.8 at Edgbaston and 84.4 at Lord’s – Carse believes his approach will be well suited to the pace and carry in Australia.
Neither has it escaped his attention that, despite Australia’s recent 3–0 win the Caribbean, culminating in West Indies’ disintegration for 27 in Jamaica, their batting was vulnerable, with an average all-out total of 227, and only Travis Head averaging more than 32.
‘I think the wickets were quite challenging to bat on,’ says Carse. ‘But, yeah, it’s a new-look top six, and it’s certainly a batting order that, if you get a couple of their key players out, you would fancy yourself as a bowling attack.’
Carse, who also contributed a vital 56 from No 9 in the first innings at Lord’s, is hopeful of keeping his place at Old Trafford: ‘I’ve started to notice that, the more I’m playing and the more I’m bowling, my rhythm seems to get better.’
And he insists he no longer has a problem with the toe that, last month, he only half-jokingly suggested he had considered amputating.
The 29-year-old is hopeful of keeping his place at Old Trafford for the fourth Test of the series
Instead, he says it’s his boots which caused him trouble while he made the transition earlier in the summer from white-ball cricket to the greater demands of the Test arena. At Headingley and Edgbaston alone, he got through eight pairs of new boots, before limiting the damage at Lord’s to two. ‘It is quite frustrating,’ he says, ‘but there will be a long-term solution.’
The harder outfields of Australia will be less forgiving, but Carse – buoyed, like all his team-mates, by the return to Test cricket of Archer – is excited at the thought of forming part of a pace-heavy England attack at the Ashes and beyond.
‘Jofra was brilliant,’ he says. ‘He’s a superstar. He’s got that ability to change a game, and he adds extra pace, which we’re pretty blessed with. We’ve got the likes of him, Josh Tongue and Mark Wood, so I feel like the bowling stocks there are pretty healthy.’
Carse, as well as Gus Atkinson and even Jamie Overton, is part of a group of England fast bowlers intent on testing out batsmen’s reflexes. And, who knows, perhaps giving them the odd piece of advice along the way.
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