Headingley Test, Day 2
Friday, August 23, 2002 That's one in the eye for all those so-called experts who've said that India aren't a great team overseas. I hope they popped in to take a look over the last couple of days. Possibly, India have shown that we haven't been especially good in this game, but it does prove just how good we have been against them over the last year or so, both home and away.

To be honest, today was always going to be about damage limitation. We kept their run-rate down until the new ball late in the day, but that was pretty irrelevant really – what we needed were wickets, and the chance to have a go at a new batsman. We missed our chance first-up yesterday, and again this morning when the conditions were still good, but we knew India were always going to come at us at some stage today. And as it started to get dark, I preferred that they came at us against a new ball than an old one.

Obviously we dropped that chance, but the simple truth is we haven't been good in this Test. The bowlers haven't hit their straps, but these things happen. It's not as if there's been any naivety in the dressing-room – we've tried to tell them to pitch it up a bit, but when they have, they've been a bit floaty and hittable. We haven't got it right in this game, but there's no shame in that.

We're not worried that Ashley Giles is spinning it already. In fact, we'd be more worried if he wasn't, as we picked him to do a job. Besides, the Indian spinners turn it on most surfaces. We can't have it all ways – it's been a good cricket wicket, with something for the batter, the fast bowler and the spinner. Now it's our turn to bat really well.

I don't think the pitch has eased that much … we shall see. Obviously after lunch, as the ball got older and softer, things definitely eased off, but even Butch [Mark Butcher] in his one over got it to pop and stop. Unfortunately we weren't able to bowl him anymore after that as his knee's still knackered. We've been doing a patch-up job on all our injuries in this Test, and it's finally caught up on us.

We've no idea if they'll declare overnight. We have got to expect every possibility, as we are really up against it, for the first time since Lord's at the beginning of the summer. We have three days of batting ahead of us, and our first target has to be the follow-on, which is a long, long way off. Everybody needs a big score, and we've got a lot of hard work ahead.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Andrew Miller. His thoughts will appear on Wisden.com, other duties permitting, at the end of each day of England's international cricket this summer.

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