Couch Talk

Former WI fast bowler and now TV commentator Ian Bishop appears on the reboot of the Couch Talk podcast and discusses fast bowlers and fast bowling in the last 30 years. He talks about Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding's impact on him, the simple advice he received from Wasim Akram, fascinating spells of fast bowling he's seen, and breaks down the essentials of fast bowling. He also talks about the younger generation of fast bowlers including Jasprit Bumrah, Jofra Archer, Shaheen Afridi and Kagiso Rabada.

Indian spinner R Ashwin discusses the role of spin bowling in T20s, the asymmetrical contest of bat v ball in T20, and states that people ought to consider T20 as a different sport and not even part of cricket.

Former India cricketer and currently their batting coach Sanjay Bangar talks about the responsibilities of his job, the influence of a great generation of batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid on the current side, batting plans in Tests vis-a-vis limited overs, and how he works with players going through a rough patch etc.

Anjali Doshi, editor of “Tendulkar in Wisden” talks about the idea behind the Wisden Anthology, the process of distilling 24 years of writing on Tendulkar in Wisden, her own experiences of covering Tendulkar and discusses the Sachin phenomenon that transformed from being about a great player to the level of infallible.

The book is available from Bloomsbury (LINK) and Amazon (LINK).

Former Australian batsman Mike Hussey talks about his new book “Winning Edge: Behind the scenes of elite cricket”, his coaching philosophies, the change in T20 batting approaches, and the various captains he’s played for, amongst other things.

West Indies U-19 side’s coach Graeme West talks about moulding a side of young individuals from the different regions of the Caribbean as a unit, the game plans, the Keemo Paul Mankading incident and the fall-out from it, and looks ahead to the future of the under-19 players, among other things.

In this episode, Shoaib Naveed talks about his journey from being a student-blogger to becoming the Project Manager of PSL, his position paper that envisioned the PSL, his entry in to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the various hoops he and his team had to jump through to organize PSL, the various criticisms of PSL’s first edition, and the visions for its future, amongst other things.

Former Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden talks about his pre-match visualization techniques, his opening partnership with Justin Langer and his ability to play spin, amongst other things.

In this episode, Shikha Pandey, India women’s national team’s allrounder talks about her cricket journey through her college education, serving in the Indian Air Force, being part of a team that defeated England in England – on her debut, no less, the T20I series win in Australia recently, Women’s Big Bash League, and the upcoming World T20, amongst other things.

In this episode, Edward Fox, who is an Aussie that moved to the U.S. 24 years ago, and Archiwal, who took to cricket in the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan, and now lives with Edward Fox through his work with the U.S. Army as a translator in Afghanistan talk about the cricketing story that has brought these two very different individuals together from different corners of the world to living under one roof in Wichita, Kansas.