Graeme Swann is almost wistful when asked how much he would have enjoyed playing for England in this turbo-charged age of Test cricket.
‘The way Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum do it is so ultra-positive,’ says one of England’s greatest spinners.
‘A lot of people say it’s gung-ho but I don’t think it is. It’s just always looking to attack with ball as much as bat and take wickets without worrying about run-rates. Imagine how good that would have been for me as a spin bowler?
‘I was told I had to get four dot balls an over. You weren’t allowed to try to take wickets from the off, you had to build your way into a spell and then get attacking fields in.
‘It was something I always disagreed with but it was only my relationships with the captains I played under, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook, that in time allowed me to do it the way I wanted to.
Graeme Swann is back with England in a coaching capacity a decade on from his retirement
He has spoken positively of the England Test team under Ben Stokes (left) and Brendon McCullum (right)
Swann was one of England’s most prolific spinners of all time, taking 255 Test wickets throughout his career
‘It’s just brilliant these lads now have licence to attack from the off and the captain will back them to the hilt.’
Swann, 44, has been given licence to bring a philosophy totally in tune with modern England to the spinners of today as, following almost a decade on the sidelines after retiring with 255 Test wickets to his name, he has finally been welcomed back into the fold.
As an ECB coach and consultant, he has been working closely with the spinners about to embark on the toughest assignment in Test cricket — taking on India in their own conditions — as well as with those who will shadow them with the Lions. And he is relishing it.
‘Our spinners haven’t got the 10 years of experience and heaps of first-class wickets that used to be a pre-requisite for getting in the England team but they have been picked on potential because spin bowling has been in the dirt for a while in England,’ says Swann with his usual frankness.
‘These guys other than Jack Leach have little experience at home, let alone overseas, but after working with them in a training camp in Abu Dhabi, I’m genuinely excited by them.’
Swann told Mail Sport of how the current crop he is working with don’t have the experience that was needed in the past
Jack Leach will likely lead the spin attack on pitches that will be sure to turn sharply in India
Swann is talking about Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, the rookie trio who, along with the fit-again Leach, have the unenviable task of going up against India’s Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel in a five-Test series starting later this month that will provide the ultimate test for them and Bazball.
The former off-spinner, whose natural ability as a talker and raconteur has seen him carve out a successful media career while awaiting this belated second call-up by his country, provides Mail Sport with an assessment of the men who will try to emulate him and Monty Panesar who, in tandem, bowled England to a famous series win in India in 2012.
First, Somerset’s Bashir, the off-spinner who has been plucked almost out of nowhere. ‘He is a big turner of the ball and is the first person I’ve ever seen with longer fingers than Monty Panesar,’ says Swann. ‘The size of his hands is ludicrous.
‘He’s raw, very young and almost wet behind the ears but a lovely lad and I’ve never seen anything quite like his love for cricket and appetite for learning.
‘When we got to training camp, he split the webbing in his hand doing a fielding drill and wasn’t allowed to bowl for the first week. He wandered around like a lost puppy.
‘He was desperate to get going and when he did, he made such an impact so quickly, everyone stood up and said, “Hang on, what have we got here?”
‘I’d seen so little of him beforehand and I was immediately impressed.’
Rehan Ahmed, like Leach, has already played for England and will likely also have a vital role to play
Lancashire’s Tom Hartley (left) and Somerset’s Shoaib Bashir (right), meanwhile, are uncapped at international level
Then there is Lancashire’s slow left-armer Hartley, another uncapped spinner who stands, like Bashir, at 6ft 4in.
‘They have both got that height, which gives them bounce,’ says Swann. ‘When I saw Tom in Sri Lanka last winter, he’d barely played any red-ball cricket, but he’s got control and sometimes in India you don’t have to be the biggest turner of the ball.
‘You have to be an Axar Patel-type bowler, able to run up, be metronomic, put it on the spot, get a little bit of rotation on the ball and let the pitch do the work.
‘Let’s not beat about the bush, we’re going to play on some absolute square turners out there after what happened last time.’
Ahmed already has the experience, at just 19, of a successful Test tour of Pakistan last winter and an introduction to England’s white-ball cricket in the last year under his belt. ‘Rey is an absolute wildcard,’ says Swann, who departed for Ahmedabad on Sunday with the Lions for their own India tour.
‘He’s a young leggie and on his day he will get you five wickets. We have seen how good he can be already.
‘There will be days when it might not come out quite right and he’ll be expensive, but he will always come out smelling of roses because he’s a brilliant character. He’s got a bit of swagger about him and I love that.
‘I want him to start believing in himself more as a bowler. He believes in himself as a batsman but not as much yet as he should do with the ball.
‘He’s already got a Test five-for but my job, and that of everyone who works with him, is to convince him the sky’s the limit. He can do everything, he really can.’
Ahmed has slight experience playing for England, having also featured for their white ball sides on occasion
Finally, there is the one experienced campaigner Leach, who returns after missing the Ashes with a stress fracture of the back. Swann has an unexpected revelation about him.
‘I tell you what, he’s as fit as any spinner who has ever played cricket for England,’ insists Swann. ‘I couldn’t believe it. He took his shirt off and I thought he was posing for a calendar or something.
‘It made me feel a little bit sick in my mouth, if I’m honest, because I always avoided that sort of regimented training.
‘But in his time off he hasn’t hit the pick ’n’ mix and burgers like I used to. He’s ripped to shreds and he’s done it because he wants to protect his back as much as he can.
‘Honestly, you won’t get over it. He’s a machine. He’s like Ken from the Barbie movie.
‘Jack is starting to believe now that he’s a world-class Test bowler and that’s what he needed. Probably 80 per cent of the job is believing in yourself when you’re bowling and not panicking and worrying.
‘I believe we would have won the Ashes last year had Jack been playing in those first two Tests. Moeen Ali came in and did as good a job as he could but he’d had no red-ball cricket under his belt and a damaged finger.
‘There’s no way we wouldn’t have bowled them out at Edgbaston had Jack been playing. I can’t wait to see him back.’
Swann said that Leach is starting to believe he is a world class spinner having missed the Ashes last year
Moeen Ali stepped in to deputise, but struggled having not played red ball cricket for a long time
Swann is very much back himself after fearing he was not wanted by England in retirement.
He says: ‘There was a time when I was scratching my head and thinking, “What have I done? Who have I upset to such an extent that they won’t ask me to help out?”
‘But when Rob Key came in, he said to me, “All the experience and knowledge you’ve got, just give it to these kids”.
‘And I’ve absolutely loved it. I wouldn’t have believed I’d enjoy coaching as much as I have.’
So much so that he hopes it becomes a bigger part of his life than broadcasting. ‘Andy Flower was the reason I got into this,’ adds Swann. ‘I was standing on an outfield in Mumbai during an IPL feeling thoroughly miserable and wondering where my life was going.
Swann admitted he wondered why he wasn’t asked to be involved with England earlier and was working as a pundit
‘Yes, I was being paid well for my media work but I was giving nothing back to the game.
‘It’s like when Keysie became managing director and said you can have all the views you want as a pundit but they don’t matter unless you get a chance to actually put them into operation and see whether they work.
‘I saw Andy and said, “Mate, can I come and coach with Trent Rockets in the Hundred? You don’t have to pay me”.
‘He said, “I never thought you’d want to do it but if you do, then absolutely”. I went along and loved it and it gave me my mojo back.
‘That’s why I’m on my way to Ahmedabad now rather than celebrating Newcastle beating Sunderland 3-0 with my lad! I’m bouncing out of bed in the mornings and enjoying life again.’
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