England in UAE: No-balls need fixing, says Nasser Hussain
'You don't want to have to take 25 wickets, 20 is hard enough'
Wednesday 14 October 2015 06:52, UK
Nasser Hussain says England must eradicate their no-ball errors after it cost them another wicket on day one of the first Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.
England reduced Pakistan to 286-4 at the close, but could have had three more wickets. Stuart Broad's dismissal of Shoaib Malik (124no) on 40 was called back for a no-ball, while Ian Bell dropped Mohammad Hafeez (98) on seven, and Asad Shafiq (11no) in the penultimate over of the day.
"You don't want to have to take 25 wickets - 20 is hard enough in these conditions - so 25 is near on impossible," said Hussain.
"I think in 2015 England have bowled 24 no-balls. That's not a lot actually given the amount of cricket that they've played, but that's only the number they have been called for, I think they've bowled a lot more.
"Bowlers - like Broad did - striving for that extra yard, will overstep. And it's not just him, it has happened on a number of occasions with England, resulting in five or six wickets being taken away from them - Ben Stokes, Steven Finn, Mark Wood, and Broad today.
"That's a lot wickets, and the runs after them, that cost the team, as we've seen today with Malik kicking on to a hundred.
"Eventually as a bowler you have to hold your hands up and say 'that's my fault'. You can blame the umpire for not calling them which means you're pushing the line all the time, but you have to look at yourself and get that foot behind the line."
Hussain was full of praise for James Anderson though, as the Lancashire seamer took two wickets to move him above Wasim Akram into 10th place on the all-time leading Test wicket-takers list.
He now has 415 Test wickets, and could have had more were it not for Bell's two drops off his bowling.
"Anderson could have had a four-for on the flattest pitch of all time," Hussain added. "You can't fault his effort and the effort of England's bowlers as a whole.
"I thought they were excellent and that Alastair Cook was good with his captaincy.
"It was a sloppy day with Bell's two drops and the Broad no-ball, but you can't fault the effort."
Coverage of the first Test between Pakistan and England continues with day two live on Sky Sports 2 HD from 6.30am on Wednesday.
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