England vs India: Liam Dawson thought opportunity to play Test cricket again was gone before first wicket in eight years | Cricket News

It only took Liam Dawson seven balls into his Test return to pick up his first wicket in eight years, an opportunity he believed would not come.

The 35-year-old left-arm spinner admitted he thought his hopes of an England recall had vanished before Shoaib Bashir’s Test summer was ended by a finger injury sustained in the third Test win at Lord’s.

Dawson claimed figures of 1-45 from 15 overs, having Yashasvi Jaiswal caught at slip for his first Test wicket in 2,929 days since dismissing South Africa legend Hashim Amla at Trent Bridge in July 2017.

“I’ve said to a few people that the age I’m at, I thought Test cricket was gone,” Dawson said. “To be back involved is really cool, and I’ve got to try and enjoy each day that I get.

“I do feel I’m a better bowler than I was a few years ago. I was nervous. I hadn’t played for a number of years. The biggest thing for me is that I understood what to expect, whereas before, I didn’t.

“Hopefully, I’ll get a couple more. It’s one wicket, I’ve done nothing special.

“You deal with the nerves a little bit better the older you get. It was good fun out there today, and we’ve got another big day tomorrow.”

The Hampshire all-rounder is familiar with a lot of the players in the current England set-up and said easing into the environment was simple.

“I know a lot of the lads, so coming in was fine, the buzz of the Test matches is very different from domestic cricket,” Dawson added.

“It’s a very relaxed environment. I was told to just be me and do what I’ve done in red-ball cricket. Just trying to do a job for the team.”

Dawson was also in control of the fields he wanted to set against the India players and revealed he had spoken to England captain Ben Stokes during training about his plans as well as England’s spin-bowling coach, Jeetan Patel.

“I had a chat with him a couple of days out training, and he said to just try and be clever in how I use them.

“I was trying to do what I’ve done the last three or four years in domestic cricket and bring that into this.

“You always need someone [a coach] to talk to, but I’m at the age where I’m not going to massively change my game, I’ve got to keep it very simple.

“But it’s good to chat to Jeets (Jeetan Patel) and throw a few ideas around, but from a technical point there’s probably not much I can change at the age I’m at now.”

Atherton: Dawson deserves England call-up

Sky Sports Cricket’s Michael Atherton believes that Dawson “deserves” his England call-up, with him being a consistent performer for Hampshire. As well as 21 wickets in the County Championship so far this season, he also provides more batting firepower down the order with a strike rate of 42.

“He adds some batting depth and has lots of wisdom and knowledge with his left-arm spin,” Atherton said.

“Sometimes the criticism of this England team is that it’s harder to get into the team than it is to get out of the team.

“You don’t want a feeling where players on the outside feel that they can’t get in, and players on the inside feel like they are not going to get dropped.

“There needs to be a balance; you need to have some level of security there, and that’s a fine balance to get.”

Watch day two of the fourth Test between England and India at Old Trafford, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10.15am, Thursday (11am first ball), or stream without a contract.

England vs India – results and schedule

All games at 11am UK and Ireland; all on Sky Sports