Lord's Test, Day 2
Friday, July 26, 2002 That was a great performance all down the order, but we certainly don't view those runs as a bonus. It is something that Duncan and I have tried to get into the side all along, that 11 batters equals 11 wickets, and it's imperative that everyone should play their part. Even Matthew Hoggard at the end there valued his wicket dearly. In the old days we might have had a slog and declared, but we don't do things like that now, because that attitude makes the lower-order feel as though they're not as important. At the beginning of the day we were aiming at 400 to 450, so to push 480 is very pleasing.

Simon Jones struck the ball beautifully in his innings, and even showed some shades of Darren Gough in his early days. I just hope he doesn't fade away like Goughie seems to have done. He obviously needs some work here and there, and Duncan and I will try to instil some of the basics into him, but he's got a good attitude. He tries hard in all three disciplines, and once you've got that, the rest falls into place. All the guys – White, Giles, Hoggy at the end there – they all did their bit.

Freddie [Flintoff] and I had a good partnership, though when you're batting with Fred it's easy – you just push a single and give him the strike. We added nearly 100, and it was a shame we got out within seven balls of each other, but Agarkar had started to swing the ball away a bit, which he hadn't done up until then, and we were looking to push the score on at that stage.

That early wicket settled Hoggy's nerves, although I haven't really been worried about him. Aside from the one-dayers, he's bowled well in Test cricket for a while now. The more worrying thing is that we were getting no swing. Luckily it started to reverse towards the end, but we need that to carry on tomorrow. The Indians got both their new balls to go, and a bit of reverse in between, but these are the vagaries of swing – sometimes it goes for you, other times it doesn't.

I gave Ashley Giles an early go for that very reason, and also because Sehwag tends to treat spin as though it shouldn't exist. It was a bit of a gamble, and it didn't pay off until the very end, but it was worth a shot. Also, I wanted to ease Jones into the big time. I didn't want him to charge in and disappear for 40 runs in four overs on his debut in front of a big crowd. That way you're always trying to drag it back.

I told him I'd give him a couple into the wind from the Nursery End, then let him switch and run in from the Pavilion, and he was happy with that. He was very nervous, and said he couldn't feel his legs as they'd turned to jelly. But he came back well, although the wicket didn't suit him one bit – you need to be a bit skiddier on this pitch, like White, because if you bang it in it sits up to be hit. But Jonesy uses reverse-swing well, and hopefully that'll be a factor later on in the innings.

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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