Test Match Special

England v Sri Lanka: Root reaches history

Jonathan Agnew is alongside Alastair Cook and Michael Vaughan at Lord's for reaction to Joe Root hitting his 34th hundred, taking him past Cook's record, and helping England take control of the second test against Sri Lanka. They discuss Root, Ollie Pope's management of the game situation with bad light stopping play, and how test cricket can adapt to be able to keep playing in darker conditions.

Root says he's "still got a lot of work to do" despite hitting his record 34th century.

Plus, Isa Guha, Steven Finn, Phil Tufnell & Andy Zaltzman take a look through what has made Root's career so impressive.

Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 31 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Give it a try at Mint Mobile.com/switch. $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time, unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month. So, full turns at Mint Mobile.com. BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. You're listening to the TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Hello, I'm Jonathan Agnew. Welcome to Test Match Special Podcast from Lords Where Joe Root has raised the bar at Made History. He gives himself room. He calls it out to the cover. And Joe Root goes to 34 test hundreds. He jumps in the air. He raises his bat to the crowd. Everyone up on their feet. To come, we'll hear from the man himself after he hit his 34th century for England. And we'd also have analysis of the day's play from Alistair Cook and Michael Vaughan. Plus, we have a deeper look at Root's incredible achievement. You're listening to the TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. So, 53 for two means your bank has still need 430 to win England. We're bold out for 251 today. They added 226 to the nine wickets that fail. And, of course, yes, the headline. Joe Root making his 34th test century. He's also the highest scoring batsman here at Lords. We made 105 if my writing's not let me down before being caught in the deep. He was the last man out, actually. Then he really held that things together again. Interestingly, he was on 88 when the 8th wicket fails. It must have felt a little bit anxious, I suspect then. Well, maybe not. We'll find out when we interview him again very shortly. But, Alistair Cook here and Michael Vaughan as well. How's your reception going round there? It's a nice warm hand. It was quite a strange feeling for you. Really? You know, you always know that when his record's made to be broken. And you knew who was going to break it. You didn't know the actual day, although, actually, I think you had to move any cling to it. It could well happen. How are you doing? The attention that I suppose I've received, and it's anything to do with me today. It should all be about Joe Root, and it feels like it's been a bit out to me. But it shouldn't be. It's all a bit about Joe Root. And, yes, I thought today, if he survived his first ten balls and I looked at the wicket, I thought occasionally yesterday we saw a few balls keep a bit low. And I thought he might get one of those. But there was no balls which kept low. And I thought you got, you put ten balls in. I just thought, the inevitability about his class would mean that he'll get on. When he's coming out, he'll hate the sight of seeing me again twice in two days, I'm afraid. Joe, two days seems a long time ago. Tell me you'll get me. Well, there you go. Two days ago, 33. Here you are, 34. Well done. Cheers, thank you. Yeah, it's good fun. It was, I mean, obviously it's a nice situation when you're that far ahead of the game to come out there. But, you know, you just want to drive it forward as quickly as you can and put yourself in as strong a position as possible. And with these conditions as well, you're trying to make the most of it and utilise that. Today, while they're here, the sooner we could get there, the better and just trying to be proactive and smart in the conditions that we had. And he worries, I think you were 88 when the eighth flicket went down. Little bit, were you hanging just or not? No, not with the guys that we had. It was just trying to get the balance right with moving the game forward and not letting it stand still and, you know, trying to maximise, you know, the time that we had. So, felt like, you know, when I stopped taking the singles off the short stuff, it was more about if I can get a couple of pounds away and over, make them make a different play whether it be ring fielders or didn't quite work out like that. But, yeah, it was more, just didn't want the game to stand still. That was the only thing that was sort of on my mind was, as a team, we always talk about moving the game forward, driving the game and when we're in the position that we are so far ahead of it, you don't want to stall that, so just sort of getting the balance of that, really. Yeah. You said a couple of days ago that you were playing well, but you didn't feel in that sort of nirvana place where you just, that's kind of battling with you there today? No, not really, but it doesn't mean, like, I mean, that's the ideal scenario, but it doesn't mean you can't score runs if everything doesn't feel perfect and I think that's something that over time and experience is something that I've managed to learn and I suppose add to your game is, you don't always need to feel a million dollars a day before the game or in preparation or even out there, there's other ways that you can be effective and being able to rotate the strike, being able to get back down the other end for a bit until something clicks into play so you get a few boundaries away and you feel a bit fluency, then it does get easier, so I think that's just come over time and something I've started to manage a lot better over the last four or five years. Explain to a betting dunce what betting nirvana actually is, I mean, I literally just standing there and just playing and not really having- It's as if you're hovering outside of your body and it's just doing it on autopilot and I think it only really happens four or five times in your career, but that's what you're always searching for when you go out and you practice and you do all the work and drills, that's what you're trying to get yourself in that place where you can just be on autopilot and, you know, if it doesn't work out, you've just got to, I guess that's a way of trying to keep improving and getting better and that's sort of a driver for me is, you know, every day can I find, can I get closer to that state where you feel like it's just happening automatically. How much does this record mean to you? I'm, like I say, I've got a lot of crickets still to play, yeah. It'd be nice bragging rights to be having a beer with Cookie now and have a few chats about it. He took it very well, by the way. He's very magnificent. I'm sure he was, but yeah, it's still a lot of work to do, so. Have you got records of following when you're the highest run score at Lord's now, as you know that? Well, it's all plastered up on the TV earlier, so you saw it all, but yeah, they're all nice things to- Yeah. That's run score coming up. Well, I don't want to bring Cookie into this, I feel sad, but it's not far away from becoming English hard run scorer. Yeah, well, hopefully it's a long way past that. I mean, like I say, I want to play for a lot longer. I feel like I'm a long way to go yet, so yeah, we'll see how that goes. What did you put your conversion? You were improved if that's the right way, putting a conversion rate down to from 50 to 100? Experience. Yeah. I think just managing the game better, playing the situations better. And using the guys that I'm batting with in partnership better. And I think it's just one of those things that I got in a bit of a rut. I made a thing of something that wasn't really a thing and led it effect the way that I handled those situations, and now I just feel like the more and more you play, the more experience you get, the easier it is once you've done it before and to recall upon those past times. I'm sure many England cricketers have had a hug from their dad going up into the pavilion. Yeah, that was nice. It was always nice, yeah, so he's obviously very proud, but always nice to share moments like that with family. Brilliant. Well played, Joe. Thanks for talking to us. Really appreciate it. I think you might get more than a beer out of cookie. No chance. Well played, Joe. You can't buy him more than beer, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, although I said it this morning, I thought he was going to do it. I've been totally unprepared. I think when he got past 10,000, I managed to get him a bottle of champagne, signed up, wrote a message on a bottle of champagne, so I'll have to do something. I think I might have to combine it next week when he does everything. Well, I'll buy a few sheep or something. It sounded really promising from an England point of view. They kept talking about more to come, more to come, and you're talking very much about the future, wasn't it? Yeah, absolutely. I think the big thing for him, we all know sport can move quickly, but the ashes away in two years' time, well, eight, not quite two, you know, 15 months, I think. That will be a big one. Then he's going to probably look at and say, "Well, will I make the next one in England?" I think that would be the kind of like... But today's not the worry about the future, I think he's always going to give you that answer today, even if he's not thinking it, I'm sure he is, but he's just going to give a bland media piece the answer about saying, "Oh, it's all about driving forward, getting better." I see today's not about getting better, today's about looking back and breaking a record. It's a pretty good record to hold. What's really nice when someone on the trail involved in seeing him a lot, in quite bad times towards the end of his captaincy, he was really a pretty bad state when he gave it up. It seems smiling and being Joe Root and cheerful and Chipper and Jokey is really nice. Absolutely. And that real love of the game seems to be back, just how he scored those runs. Like he did in that situation by Mike and I had been the captain towards the end of your reign and you know the end is nice and it's not a great place to be. They've lost some time here, they'll make half an hour of it up tomorrow, but I feel like it's going to roll the move. Well, that's how it feels. Yeah, you get that sense. I mean, Sri Lanka have not played great, you know, England, this juggernaut here, when they start getting on top, they knew exactly how to play today in Joe Root, he just said to themselves that they're very good at pushing the game on when they're on top and you would expect tomorrow for them to make it very, very difficult for Sri Lanka. I just want to see a bit of fight, you know, I want to see, we saw that old traffic actually in the first things when there were six for three or three for six, whatever it may be in that first 20 odd minutes, they fought and in the second is exactly the same. I didn't see enough of that in the first things, I've not seen a great deal of it this evening. It wasn't easy tonight, you know, when they started about the clouds were in, the lights were on, the ball was doing a bit, but I just want to see, you know, I just want to see them really fight tomorrow, just try and try and get 300, you know, they're not going to win the game, I can't see how they're going to get anywhere near this total, but I just want to see a bit of fight from Sri Lanka. For England, let's talk about the lighter minute because it's always controversial and always people get fed up a bad light, but the existing rules and regulations, it felt to me at least that you were right, we don't want to get this ball soft and too warm, we're going to come back tomorrow, if we can't borrow fast ballers, that's it, I mean, would you have been the same? Absolutely, they did the right, they only poked it, they were absolutely right, quick go at it, experiment, stayed on a bit, got the seamers on for those two overs, only stone got the wicket, and I think if they had gone off then they would never have got back on. It was just a bit of a shambles, I don't like criticising too much about things, but I was on air on the TV for half an hour, and whatever that meter had, it took forever, whatever they were doing, it looked wrong, it gives a wrong image, and people always say when you're in the game, when you go out the game you have a different view, I actually still don't have, I've always had this view towards the end of my curiosity, this is now, I still think this is perfectly acceptable to face a red ball under the lights, it's just a mental change needed, I'm sure there will be a legal issue about something, and I don't know about that, but I just think, I'm looking at this here, yes is it ideal, no, it's not ideal, but cricket, sometimes you're back in tough conditions, sometimes you're back, and it goes and it swings in roundabouts and it's not fair, but that's with good light, bad light, whatever, so I think, in my opinion, if they can do it, we're just going to play and then it'll be a little bit of the players for six months, and then it'll be, oh that's just the norm. The test match cricket is the one format that seems to find a way of getting off the pitch, and we've all got our own ideas, but it really is down to the administrators and test match cricket to find a solution, and I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you turn to a pink ball in these situations, so old traffic, England changed the ball, the ball started to swing round, there's no one bats an eyelid, this is all you've got looking with the ball chain, so can't we just change to a pink ball? Alright, might do a little bit, but you know, it did a bit last week when you changed to a red ball, so I just want to see when people have played a lot of money to come and watch the game, and the lights are on, I just want to see cricket, particularly test match cricket, be played, and I just think test cricket consistently just lets the public down, the paying public who have come here today at laws and also those that are watching on television and listening on the radio, it's down to test cricket, the administrators to find a solution, we've been going on about this for years and years and years, and we're in 2024 and still we're frustrated, surely it's now time to go, just change the ball, go to a pink ball and carry on plane, yeah well that's one thought, could you have a ruling if it gets like this, you can't bounce it, you can still bow fast bowlers, but with safety and all that sort of stuff, I don't know, throwing it out there, I don't like that rule, I had heard it before and I kind of like, no you cannot do that, because it's a red ball game, actually the point that you change the ball so often with the red ball, because these balls for whatever reason don't stay in shape, so yeah it's something has to be done and it's enough people around to be able to think about it to actually make a decision and do it, yeah, only pope, I'd mention him 17 today, had an opportunity, funny old shot, well then they went that short attack and he just really tried to outplay it really, yeah I'm not too concerned about the shot actually, I mean it's a short ball theory goes for its first ball, but because of the situation in the game I was just a little bit more concerned about his balance on that front foot, when he first went out there, I look at it, he's a bit frantic, but I think he's frantic because of his technical side, it's not quite at its finest, I think he's not trusting his movements when he first goes out there, I don't see his backlift as good as it has been in the past, he's losing balance on that front foot and I think that's how he's looking front, then he starts dashing down to get his pads out the line of off-stump, he's clearly, since he's at the captain, he's not been playing great, I'm not too sure what it's all about, the captain see, but he certainly isn't playing in a balance state out in the middle, I've said it this way, I don't like him as captain, I just don't see that personality, I think sometimes you look at him in football, you have great assistant managers, you necessarily don't become great managers, and I think cricket we don't speak about how, you know I had Marcus Treskothik as an amazing vice captain, but I never felt that Marcus wanted to be the captain, but boy he's the best vice captain that you could possibly have, and I think cricket is like that, that you have people within teams that are absolutely outstanding as vice captains, a great people in the dress room, who necessarily don't need to go up to be the captain or in football the manager, and that's pretty much what captain see in cricket is, you are the manager of the team, so I've said that, I hope I'm not affection, he's bad and I don't think anybody who's criticising will be, it's just that balance on that front foot when he first goes out there with the ball nipping back, he's got a real, a lot of work to do on the technical side of his batting to become a little bit more confident and a little bit more secure when he goes out to the middle. You can also try too hard, can't you? Yeah, you can, you can, a lot of success, he's scored a lot of runs at number three, but against real quality, you know, and let's be honest, the Sri Lankan team was a pretty good, and they've had him on a little bit of toast in the first two test matches where they've just felt that they can challenge that off-stump, bring the ball back into the pads, and I think at the minute Sri Lankan feels like they can bolt to the England captain, but he goes to the oval next week, a ground that he's scored, all those runs are pretty sure he's going to get two test match wins on the trot, which is great for him as a captain, but, you know, as a number three, you've got to find that inner kind of confidence and that inner calmness and that generally comes first and foremost by your technical side being really good. Thanks to Alistair and Michael, stay with us, as very shortly, used to go, feel tough, personal. Stephen Finn and Andy Zoltzmann will have a more in-depth look at Joe Root's outstanding career. The TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Explaining football to the brand who's just there for the nachos, hard. Tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love, any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing. Shop game day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three gross reorders. Offer valid for a limited time, other fees in terms apply. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous to your contracts, they said, "What the f*ck are you talking about? You insane Hollywood f*ck. So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month, slow. Full turns at mintmobile.com. $259 for four. Root on $96. Brakeswell goes into bold to him now. And that's nerdle away down towards third man. And there it is. Root's first test hundred on a Saturday at Leeds in front of his home crowd. Huge roar goes up and he gets a hug from Bearstone, a milestone in any cricketer's life. And possibly the first of many for Joe Root, a maiden test match hungry. Listing to the crowd, I think they're shading out Yorkshire Yorkshire. Root's ecstatic. A lovely shot to get there as well, running it down to third man. Joe Root opens stance. Taps his back down. He gives himself room. He cars it out to the crowd. And Joe Root goes to 34, test hundred. He jumps in the air. He raises his back to the crowd. Everyone up on their feet to witness a man. Do something that no other England player has done before. We salute you. Joe Root. He is quite simply England's greatest. And he's absolutely right. He's had the record on his own. Take it in, Joe. We are watching a genius. A great moment for Joe Root today. And he has looked so fluent in this test match hasn't he? I mean, we are so lucky to live in the era of Joe Root because he just makes batting look so easy. Yeah, he's just such a versatile player, isn't he? He is able to transcend that across formats. He's able to adapt his game to whatever the situation dictates. This was his fastest test century, I think, today. And it didn't really feel as though he was trying to score that quick. He just has this natural, beautiful ability to be able to get to 30 without anyone even noticing it ticks off 50s like it's going out of fashion. And yeah, he's quite a remarkable player. You're right. We are very lucky to be able to sit here watching them. What he does do, I've seen a lot of Joe Root as well. And what he then adapted into his game. And it wasn't that long ago. You know, a few, well, good sort of few years ago is that ability to, and you would know this Steve as a bowler. You have your good ball and even just to get it for one. You don't know. It's demoralizing. That sort of like little shuffle back and a knock through to sort of golly or that forward sort of press and just knocks it into that sort of extra cover region. And you've both six decent balls at him. What you think, you know, in the top of off some, he's got four or five yards off it. Yeah, and he waits for the ball. I think when you're watching someone like Oli Popu, who's under that bit of pressure at the moment, Zach Crawley pushes at the ball outside his front pad in front of his pad. You really realize when you're bowling at someone, how late they play the ball. And Joe Root, you can see it's always underneath his eyes. And Kane Williamson is very similar. When you bowl at Kane Williamson, you bowl what you felt like your best ball. So it comes off your fingertips. You think, Oh, that's a beauty. It gets halfway down. And Williamson's watching it like it's in slow motion. And Root does the same. And they just play it with the full face of the bat. They run it towards golly. If you've got one, great. If you don't, they're off strike and they're down the other end. Yeah, I'd say that Root then just developed that Kane Williamson, you know, would look to do that, but not necessarily look to then take a run or sort of get the run off it. It was just like all really well played. But then Joe, I think, just sort of put that another level above that and was actually thinking, well, hold on. I mean, I can get runs here off their good balls, you know. And I think that's what he's done all through his career, as he's just always wanted to better himself. You know, I think John was saying, you know, I will play the other day to him. He said, well, you know, playing all right. You know what I mean? He said, playing all right. But I haven't quite got that when I don't have to think about it just yet. I mean, yeah. Oh, nice. And the innings the other day, you know, he didn't play the reverse scoop until his dismissal. He put that away. And I mean, a lot of talk about how he has developed his game and how he's wanted to move with the basketball era and this new approach that stokes in McCollum have tried to get the players to adapt to. And Joe Root as a leader, wanting to kind of show everyone the way by using those shots a little bit more. But he has kind of gone back to what has made him so successful. I think he got that little bit wrong, actually. You know, I mean, I think he did get that little bit wrong. But it's just another mark of the man, right? How can I now do this? How can I now be part of this team, especially, you know, just after being stepping down from the captaincy as well. You know, so it just shows the character of the chapter. Yeah, he's a selfless player. He has to bat selfishly to score the run. You have to be selfish to be out there to score those runs and want it to be you score in those runs. But the manner in which he scored them once stokes in McCollum came captain and coach, I think showed really what sort of character he is within that dressing room. I would imagine being a captain and then going back into the ranks when you didn't necessarily want to be going back into the ranks. He was quite boisterous, I think, after that West Indies series where he was asked to step down that he wanted to keep going, I can take this team forward. So to then come and play in the manner that he did, maybe on the uber aggressive end of the spectrum for 18 months or so, he was doing that as a show of support to his mate Ben Stokes to say, I am going to buy into this. There's going to be no lingering around the dressing room wondering about what could have been. I wish that was me, given those team talks. He'd have been very, very focused on buying into the team ethos. And then I think that dismissal of his to Bumra in the tests in India, where he looked to reverse scoop him. And he got caught second slip by Jai Swal when there was no Ashwin, Jadeja was hobbling around on one leg and Mukesh Kumar was the other bowler. I think that was a bit of a watershed moment maybe for him to then just say, I can just bat like Joe Root and be Joe Root. And he has looked marvellous this summer. He's quite magnificent. And play the situation when you think about that they're not really played up at all traffic as well. It was a situation where he was needed to get them out of trouble. When you're England's finest, you know, you don't have to particularly worry about styles or how I'm going to get me. But it's just go about getting your runs. You get them a great clip. You know, yes, I think you might have got that a little bit wrong, but I mean, it wasn't for long. And then the only other thing that sort of like ups and downs in a wonderful career was, I think we were talking about it the other day, you know, was those conversion rates, which just sort of like, you know, you could see, you could see that he was sort of sort of angry with himself about it, wasn't he? Let's just illustrate both of those points up to the end of 2020 in 97 tests. He had 1700s. He's called the same number of 100s since then in 48 tests. He had 6650s in those first 97 tests. I was converting 26% of his 50s into 100s since then 3250s, 17 converted so 53%. So he's doubled his conversion rate since the start of 2021 looking at since that Bumra reverse scoop or the matches since that that reverse scoop, 7 tests, 884 runs average 88.4. Strike rate 61 per 100 balls. That's gone up a bit today with his fastest century. No sixes. Previously under Bazball is average 50. So still good, but not as good as his recent form. Strike rate 74 and he'd hit 19 6s and 21 tests before Bazball average just under 50 and his strike rate was 55 and he hit 25 6s in 117 tests. So rare 6s since he hasn't hit a 6 since that Bumra reverse scoop and he's returned pretty much to the strike rate that he had for his entire career up to Bazball. And that would be a fine approach for England going forward in that he is the anchor, isn't he? He's the one, he's the constant that everyone bats around and can be a little bit more positive around him because you've got someone there that you know is going to take you from from 100 to 300 with the players that he has with him. Yeah, he's a compliment to those guys, isn't he? You've got Harry Brooke there who has the ability to score and he's going through a bit of a period actually now at the moment probably about working out what sort of test batter he wants to be. He's had to play every form of cricket for the last few years since he burst onto the scene in 2022 and watching the way that Joe Root goes about it would be a calming influence, especially through that mid-lord. So yeah, he's the rock, he's the glue and we hope that he doesn't pack it in any time soon. He's hunting down ten dollars record now, I feel it's about three and a half thousand away. And he loves it, doesn't he? He absolutely loves the game and anywhere he goes he's got this energy about him. He wants to learn, he wants to get better, he's always talking to the young players coming through offering them advice and just must be such an amazing person to have in the dressing room. Yeah, I don't think he feels yet he's the finished article at all. I thought I bet he's still sitting there thinking, what can I do, what can I add to my game, what can I do, can I do this, can I do that, I've got another shot in there, can I knock it through there and what have you. But yeah, he's just always looking to improve, always, loving the game loves batting. He loves rans. He's such a peaky, he's not quite Steve Smith level of loving cricket and batting. Well, no. Shadow batting through the night. I mean, I don't think he's shadow bats in his pajamas, does he? I'm not sure. We'll have to ask. I've never seen him in his pajama. But he is such a wonderful role model to the rest of the team. Yes, and that smile on his face actually, he only lost that for a brief period whilst he was captain and he managed to keep his performances remarkably high, given what was going on around him, how badly the team were performing at the time and the mental stress that he must have been under. But when that weight was lifted from him and he's come back into the ranks, he just turned back into the smiley, happy Joe route that is a fantastic person to have in the dressing room. And you mix that with the runs and with his always wanting to get better. You look at Jimmy Anderson, all the way through his career was always looking for a new delivery or he changed the pace of his run up for the India series this year at 41 years old to say, I need to attack the crease more to make sure I've got more momentum. It seems like that and inspiration like that would also inspire someone like Joe Roon. And the mark of greatness as well is the ability to do it in different situations and different conditions as well. Such a good player has been in the subcontinent and we'll go to Andy for his home and away average. Yeah, at home, 55.6 away, the little man, three tests on neutral territory. It was a way average of 46 to 47. So a little bit lower. But in Asia averages just under 47 in India, 45 with 300s, one of very few players to have centuries in three different series in India. And just looking at his consistency, made his debut in 2012 and has played at least seven tests in every calendar year since then. His worst calendar year was his first full year of test cricket 2013. He averaged 34. Since then, his lowest average in a calendar year has been 37. And he's been over 40 in all the other years since then, including just counting about one, two, five years, including this one in which he's averaged over 60. So a remarkable consistency. You generally see in a player with a career that long, there is at some point a bit of a dip. But Roo really hasn't had, he's had a few matches where he's had a dip, but he's not had a prolonged slump in form really in his entire career. And just start on the back of your comment, Steve. Since Rajkot, seven tests, 12 innings, 884 runs at 88. Yeah, remarkable numbers. The one thing that Joe Roo wants to tick off now is, I was not sure he scored 100 in Australia. That would be the one who will be looking at that in 14 or 15 months time, as to say, I am clearly, I am a great. He will, whatever he does in that series, if he averages three in that series, he'll still be a great, but for him, that'll be burning away at him. He will want to go down there and influence the series for England to win down there. Thanks to Isa Phil, Steve and Andy for that chat. And that's it for this episode of the TMS podcast. Make sure you subscribe on BBC Sound. So don't miss anything from this test series between England and Sri Lanka. And while you're on BBC Sound, make sure to check my view from the boundary conversation with Ben Wilbond, the ghost star chats all about the BBC hit series and getting a visit from Jeffrey Boycott while he was at school. Test match specials back on air at 10 on Sunday on five sports extra and BBC sounds for the fourth day of the test here at North. Hey, I hear you think podcasts are all about true crime, huh? Well, wise guy, the iHeart Radio app's got all kinds of podcasts. We got stuff you should know and stuff they don't want you to know. We got Bobby Bones, Big Boy and Lou Lader. We got SpongeBob, binge pants and exotic erotic story time. We got doe boys, two dudes in the kitchen, green eggs and Dan. Hey, we got Elf Quest. We got podcasts for everything on the iHeart Radio app for free. If you don't download that, well, that's not just a true crime, my friend. That's criminal.