'If our opponents are scared, that has to be a good sign'

Given that he's spent the best part of two decades on the county circuit, and endured almost 11 years between international assignments, it's no surprise that Shaun Udal's feet are firmly anchored to terra firma. Less than a month ago, he was lording it on a yacht in the Arabian Sea, having bowled England to a series-levelling victory in the third Test at Mumbai. On Wednesday, however, he was back at his day job, preparing for a new season with his county colleagues at Hampshire.

A weekday morning at the Rose Bowl - it's a world away from the cloistered lifestyle of a modern-day England tourist. Udal posed for photo shoots in the pleasant spring sunshine, with his feet resting on the county's hard-won C&G Trophy and his mind firmly focused on his role as stand-in captain. In the absence of Shane Warne, still on international duty with Australia, it is Udal who will lead the team in the early weeks of the season - including a tricky defence of their C&G title against Ireland in Dublin on April 23.

"It's a potential banana skin," says Udal of Hampshire's clash with the tournament's favourite giantkillers, who have recruited the services of two high-profile Pakistanis, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shahid Afridi, to boost their prospects of another upset. "They've beaten counties in the past, and those two are proven matchwinners. Afridi annihilates international attacks, let alone county ones."

For all the familiarity of Afridi's name, the setting at Clontarf will be a million miles removed from the last time the two opponents met - at Faisalabad in December, when Afridi slammed a berserk 92 from 85 balls to give Pakistan control of a Test that England could not afford to lose. Udal's own figures were 0 for 60 from 13 overs, as his fledgling career average ballooned to 154.

"I finished the winter on a real high, but the first part wasn't too special," he concedes. "Those pitches in Pakistan were the flattest of my life - all I asked after Pakistan was don't judge me on those flat horrible wickets where even Harbhajan Singh couldn't get a wicket. I just wanted to be given a chance on a turning wicket, and thankfully it eventually went my way."

But it was a near-run thing as far as Udal's legacy was concerned. He picked up a bug during the Christmas break, which knocked him sideways as soon as the team's training intensified on their arrival in India. "Things just went from bad to worse," he said. "Initially I thought I'd been fine for the first Test, then I went for a jog round the pitch and almost collapsed. I was nowhere near fit enough for a five-day Test."

Ian Blackwell and Monty Panesar were instead chosen as England's spin spearhead, and Udal admits he feared the worst. "It's at moments like that you see people jump ahead of you in the queue and you start to worry that, at 36 going on 37, you might be struggling to get back in. But thankfully I got fit, worked hard in the nets, and by the third Test I was raring to go and ready for the challenge."

The final exchanges of the Mumbai Test are now the stuff of legend. Udal picked up the remarkable figures of 4 for 14 in 9.2 overs, as India shed their last seven wickets for 25 to lose by 212 runs. "It was an incredible atmosphere for the whole of the Test, what with 5000 English fans in the crowd and the state of the series, with us having to come back from 1-0 down. I've never played in that much heat and humidity, and given that we'd not won a Test in India for 21 years, for me to play a big part was fantastic."

India had been reasonably placed at 75 for 3 when Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar fell in quick succession, the latter to Udal himself - his most prized wicket of the tour. "When Dravid got out I thought we had a big sniff, and when Tendulkar fell it was even better. It was at that moment I genuinely thought we were going to win, and Dhoni's silly rush of blood proved it."

Ah yes, that rush of blood. Mahendra Singh Dhonut, as he was quickly dubbed by The Sun, decided that a full-frontal assault was the only way to save the day. Twice in four balls, he launched a steepler towards Monty Panesar at long-off. The second was safely pouched; the first, however, plopped to the turf a full six feet to his right.

Udal's face was a picture when the first chance went down. "I simply didn't know what to do - I couldn't swear because I knew the cameras would be on me, and what are you meant to think - "hard luck monty, shame you didn't get a bloody finger on it?!" It was a big chance, and at moments like that you worry it's gone ..."

Thankfully for all concerned (except, obviously, Dhoni), Panesar made no mistake with the second opportunity. "Afterwards we were trying to feel his heartbeat, and it was pounding like you've never felt before. He had to blank out the noise and the crowd, and simply focus on the ball coming down at him. He showed a good nerve to hang onto it."

Panesar's insouciance quite possibly stemmed from his captain's example. "The Flintoff regime is very relaxed, just like he is in everyday life," says Udal, who has known a few skippers in his time. "The good thing about Freddie is he won't ask you to do what he won't do himself. He led from the front in every Test, with every ball he bowled and with real discipline with the bat, and he was inspirational in the dressing-room. He didn't say a lot, but when he did, people listened."

Soon it'll be Udal's turn to transmit his own will to win to his young charges at Hampshire. He is one of just four squad members over the age of 30, and hopes to build on a successful season in 2005, when the team finished second in the Championship in addition to their C&G Trophy success.

"There's always expectation at Hampshire these days," he shrugged. "We've got an international venue now, and that comes with high expectations. If our opponents are scared of us, then that has to be a good sign."

As for his own high expectations, he was looking no further afield than Hampshire's weekend friendly against Lancashire. "I'm old enough and long enough in the tooth to know that what happens, happens. People keep talking about Sri Lanka in May, but if Ashley Giles is back and fit, then he's going to play. All I can hope is that I'm the first cab they call off the rank if he isn't fit. And in the meantime, I'll continue to do the best that I can."