Tuesday 9 July 2013 14:19, UK
It's Ashes-to-Ashes this summer as England and Australia contest back-to-back series!
NASSER: I've got to go for the 1998/99 series in Australia when Bumble was in charge. We were 2-1 down after Dean Headley had bowled the Aussies out in the fourth Test at Melbourne. We played really well in the final Test, at Sydney, to be honest and if it wasn't for the Michael Slater 'run out' and the umpire giving him not out when he was out, we might have won that Test and drawn the series 2-2 rather than lost 3-1. That was definitely a time when I would have liked to have another crack at them as soon as possible. On a personal level it would have been great to carry on and on after 1997 when I got some runs against Australia, including the double hundred at Edgbaston. Any time you are playing well against Australia - or playing well full stop - you'd like to play 10 games against them in a row. But when you are not doing so well and the wheels are coming off, there's no way you want to be playing the Aussies at all let alone 10 games on the bounce! Certainly not in my era! BOB: We went out to Australia under my captaincy in 1982/83 and lost the second and third Tests very heavily. At that point it looked as though we would be totally outplayed. But we then secured a dramatic three-run victory at Melbourne and would have competed far better in the final Test at Sydney had the umpiring been a little bit fairer. I'll never forget that we ran out John Dyson in the opening over - he wasn't even in the replay when they showed it again on the TV - but it wasn't given. But that's a different story for a different time. We drew the match and lost the series 2-1. It would have been nice to have come back and see how we would have fared in our own conditions. The senior players - Gower, Lamb, Willis, Botham - really had to stand up and be counted on that tour because there were some guys in the team who wouldn't have played very much cricket at all without the South African Breweries tour. Those players had to be nurtured along and with a bit more experience in the side it could have been very different. Sky Sports Ashes HD will show exclusively live ball-by-ball coverage of the Investec Ashes this summer. Find out more about our coverage and how you can tune in here.
