Picture by YCCC. From left to right, Jawad Akhtar, Noah Kelly and Yash Vagadia shared 12th man duties for England at the recent Headingley Test against India.
What an incredible experience it was to be one of the 12th men for England, alongside Jawad Akhtar and Yash Vagadia, during that first Test against India at Headingley a couple of weeks ago.
Being around the England group, it’s such a relaxed and welcoming environment. It was so easy to be around them, and they were all super-easy to chat to.
I had a couple of conversations with Ben Duckett around batting at the top order, which were very useful even though as two left-handers we go about things very differently.
He scores so quickly and puts constant pressure on attacks, as he did on day five, but I spoke to him a lot about his defence and some of the stuff I’ve been working on.
The messages I’m getting from the coaching staff, and I’ve spoken to Dawid Malan a bit at training, they were all the same sorts of things I spoke about with him. So it’s good that you have that consistency in messaging.
England chasing 371 deep into day five, it has to be one of their greatest ever victories. And you just knew that it would be at Headingley.
It just produces time after time.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Noah Kelly hailed the work of Richard Robinson and his Headingley ground-staff for the pitch they produced for the first Test between England and India, which produced an epic finish.
I actually spoke to Richard Robinson and Gareth Millthorpe after the game about how they managed to keep so much pace in the pitch.
From day one right through to five, nicking a batter off was in play all the way through.
In comparison, watching the World Test Championship final between South Africa and Australia at Lord’s just before that game, it went really slow and low very quickly. On day three, there was often one slip in play, and they had to be closer than usual and wearing a helmet.
So absolutely full credit to our ground-staff. I don’t think an England win would have happened without that pitch being as good as it was.
The thing which struck me the most was how relaxed they are around the changing rooms throughout the match.
You hear a lot about their relaxed environment in the media, don’t you. And it is right.
The one thing that I would say, however, is that they train so hard in the days leading up to the Test.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yorkshire batter Yash Vagadia sub-fields for England during the first Test against India last month.
They have net bowlers in from the leagues. They do absolutely everything they can so that when it comes to game day, they just chill because they know they’ve done everything.
When it comes to a game day morning, the preparation is very individualised. Players are given the scope to prepare how they see fit. They’re all just very chilled because they know the work has been done beforehand.
The slip catchers are the only ones who do any fielding drills. There’s so much external noise, that on game day they just want to be relaxed and in the best place possible to perform.
Joe Root would just have underarms on a game day, Ben Stokes did on day one. Then, when he knew he would be batting, he would have a full net in the morning.
People do it very differently. Zak Crawley would just have underarms, whereas Ollie Pope would have a full net.
There’s a lot of talk in the press about England playing a lot of golf, isn’t there. And I’m not saying they don’t play golf. Absolutely not. They did in the lead-up to Headingley.
But what people don’t really see is just how hard they work in the lead-up to a Test Match.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Ben Duckett takes the applause after being dismissed for a fabulous fifth-day 149, helping England to victory at Headingley. He gave Noah Kelly some tips as a top order left-handed batter.
When you think about the scrutiny they’re under, with everything being analysed in the media, they do need to switch off. So a round of golf here and there, it’s just four hours without your phone and away from the bubble that’s international cricket.
The players and coaches, in the middle of a Test Match, would be going out of their way to speak to 12th men who they’d never met before. It was an amazing environment to be around.
I went to watch India play against Australia at the MCG in the winter, and that was an amazing event. But so too was the Headingley Test.
It was pretty much sold out for the first four days, and then the fifth day there was just over half or maybe two thirds towards the end of the day. And the atmosphere was incredible.
I was fielding in front of the Western Terrace. As a spectator, you may think the players aren’t focusing on you – they’re just playing the game. But there’s so much time in between balls, that you listen to the crowd and the Barmy Army.
It was so loud, and they definitely do make a difference.
I would say Test Cricket is more popular than ever.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Noah Kelly was full of praise for the environment created around the England camp by captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
The brand of cricket everyone’s playing….I heard Ben Stokes say in an interview that he loves watching Rishabh Pant bat. And I do as well. I absolutely loved it when it came to the crease. I was like, ‘Right, something’s going to happen here’.
I was on the field when he was batting, and he ran one down to me at back backward point or third-man. I didn’t see it at first, but I managed to scamper in, pick it up cleanly, lob it in and prevent the two.
The way he just flicks the switch is incredible.
It’s not like he’s just teeing off every ball. He’ll play sensibly, play sensibly and then strike. Then he’ll just go back to milking it around, the field will come back up and he’ll go again.
It was a game of real cat and mouse at one stage between him and Stokes, and it was fascinating to watch.
India have a lot of 12th men with them, obviously being on tour, and I got talking to some of their players. I spoke a bit with Kuldeep Yadav. They actually kept saying, ‘Morning, Brevis’ as they thought I look like Dewald Brevis.
I was like, ‘Can you get me an IPL deal, too? I can chip a few if you need!’
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Rishabh Pant achieved the rare feat of scoring two hundreds in the same first-class match at Headingley and celebrated in unique fashion.
I’ve now fielded in front of a packed house at a Test Match, so that gives me that big match experience, which will hopefully make the transition through to first-team cricket that bit easier.
It’s certainly made me want to play for England. Blimey. It must be incredible to say you do that as a job.
I’ve been pretty lucky with 12th man duties as my first taste of it with Yorkshire was last year’s Championship game at Lord’s when Root, Brook and Masood were in the team that week.
I also did it at the Blast games at Headingley against and Chesterfield over the weekend.
It’s an amazing thing Yorkshire and England do with their young players in that sense.
