The Oval, Day 5
Monday, September 9, 2002 I suppose a washout was a blessing in disguise for us, as our winter break is now extended from two to three days! But, to be honest, it was quite depressing in the dressing-room. The rain was never going to stop – I'm driving home now, and it's still chucking it down – and with the ground under water we were never going to get on.

So, it's a disappointing end to a very, very fine series – it just fizzled out. If there had been another couple of days left in the match, it would have been a fascinating climax, but unfortunately there weren't. I'm not certain what we'd have done if it hadn't rained – it would have depended on the wicket. If it was starting to go through the top and turn a bit, then we might have racked up a lead of 300 and said to them "You want an overseas series win – come and get it!" But to be honest, if the track was pretty flat, without a huge amount of turn, we'd have batted out most of the day.

I can't say I'm overjoyed with a share of the series. Your aim is always to win, and frankly we had our chances, particularly at Trent Bridge. But it was the nature and the number of injuries that took their toll. We lost our two key batsmen (Marcus Trescothick and Graham Thorpe) and our two key bowlers (Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough) so we did pretty well considering. If India had lost four of their main men, then I very much doubt they'd have drawn the series.

But other than needing to learn how to finish matches off, I'm well chuffed with the summer. We have made a lot of progress – we needed to make big scores and we have done so consistently; we needed to beat good sides and we did so against Sri Lanka. We won a lot of games leading into the summer as well, and our one-day cricket has come on too. I admit, towards the end we ran out of ideas about how to remove good batsmen on flat tracks, but without going on about it, the loss of Darren Gough was crucial, as he's the type of guy who comes into his own in these situations, with his reverse swing.

So now onto the Champions Trophy. My preparation will involve taking two whole days off, and then getting into the swing of it. It's going to be difficult. We are taking very much a trial side, with the likes of Blackwell and Clarke on board, but we have to treat the tournament with the importance it deserves, and the importance the young lads deserve. The boys who've been around all summer are going to have to pick themselves up and be there for the people who are going to make their debuts and are going to be very excited come Thursday.

I wouldn't ask the country to expect too much though – it is a big part of our World Cup build-up, but with all our injuries it is not the settled side we finished the NatWest trophy with. The fresh legs will be handy though, and it is important that Duncan and I are there to see them in action at first hand.

As for the Ashes, we had a meeting this afternoon, and I think we've finalised our side. It's been very difficult – we'll probably announce it tomorrow, and certainly there'll be some happy people around, and some not-so-happy people! We'll have learnt one or two things from this game, but I think we were 99% certain of our selection even beforehand.

But of course, it all comes down to injuries, and the likes of Gough and Jones will be selected subject to fitness. With the Academy out there as well, I don't think you can name 16 or 17 people for certain. There'll be a pool of players based in Adelaide, and I'm sure some of them will be called upon. Graham Thorpe is as well as can be expected – he'll find out tomorrow just how well he is or isn't!

At least I haven't been getting any abusive letters on the subject, unlike our chairman of selectors. It's not the right way to go about things, frankly. I get my fair share of letters, and usually you can tell by the first sentence whether the writer thinks you're a great man or not – most of them end up in the bin. But it's wrong – the chairman does the best job he can, especially given the problems this summer, and gives his all for English cricket.

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.

More Nasser Hussain
Mentally, we're gone (Day 4)
There's not a lot in the pitch (Day 2)

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