Most articles with a part 1 have a part 2 and in this piece we look at the England bowling attack, and attack that the England selectors have to believe has the ability to take 100 Australian wickets over the course of the next five Test matches.
It is often said that in professional sport there is nowhere to hide, a problem exacerbated for the individual once the adrenalin of an international call up has worn off. Any weakness or fragility will be seized on more ruthlessly by opposition, fans, managers and selectors.
Over the next few months, nowhere will this adage be more prevalent than for the England bowling unit. In a quest to find balance since the departure of Andrew Flintoff, the England selectors have stuck with a four man attack. Unable to call on a stellar top six to secure regular high scores, and without a natural all rounder to pivot the team around, England have compromised, selecting 6 all out batsmen, with a Prior behind the stumps and a four man bowling unit.
While this may give the side a balanced appearance on paper, it clearly limits the choices for the captain, most crucially when someone is below par. In a five man attack there is always the option of blackballing an individual who the opposition have taken too, but with only 3 other frontline options and in temperatures that will sore above 30 degrees this is no longer an option.
As a result, England will need the four they select at the very top of their game, and in Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Steve Finn and Graeme Swann they believe that they have a unit who can get the wickets they need to secure a rare series victory on Australian turf. Three have tasted success against Australia before but which of the four is the most important to ensuring the fate of the urn this time around?
Of the three seamers, Anderson is the most likely to devastate a top order should the conditions be to his liking. If he can find swing with the Kookaburra ball and not be afraid to maintain a full length in search of reverse he is someone any batsman in the world would do well to fear. Strauss and himself also have a good understanding of when to attack and when to defend, so the field settings should be supportive to his style and the conditions. Arguably the big question that still hangs over him is how he performs when he isn’t taking wickets and the ball isn’t swinging.
Anderson will share the new ball with Broad, and the compliment each other well. Broad is also the seamer most likely to produce something from nothing, a fact which Australia will remember all too well from the Oval decider last year when he took 5 for 37 in an afternoon to essentially gift his side victory. Once again, it is mental toughness that will be called into question. Broad’s career has been dogged by a number of petulant incidents involving umpires and players alike, and the Australian fans, media and players will look to take him on. That said, I expect him to have a fine series, and he has the advantage of feeding confidence with the ball with strong performances with the bat.
Graeme Swann is the man most expect the Ashes to hinge on. The likable Nottinghamshire player’s rise has been astronomic, and pleasingly for England has coincided with a spectacular dip in form for opposition rival Nathan Hauritz. Should the ball spin Swann is more than capable of taking advantage of it, as shown in his four wicket haul in the second warm up game. His wickets and knowledge, as well as his indomitable spirit will be vital for team mates and results alike. He needs support from his captain, his fielders and from his other bowlers creating pressure at the other end. The idea of bowling n pairs is not one that England have always employed well but if Australia aren’t let off the hook at the other end Swann can cause them real problems.
That said, even though I expect Swann to be comfortably the leading wicket taker for England this series, I do not believe he holds the key to England’s triumph over the course of five matches. I believe that man is Steve Finn.
Although he is an Ashes rookie there has been much hype around young Finn. Good performances against Pakistan and Bangladesh cemented his place on the tour, and he was shielded from the Aussies in the following ODI series. His height and pace give him sharp bounce and the consistency he has for a man of such relative inexperience is nothing short of spectacular. His metronomic action and his ability to place six balls in a row on line and length have earned favorable comparisons with another man who enjoyed more than a modicum of success in this fixture; Glenn McGrath. However, for all his attributes I do not think he will roll the Aussies over on a regular basis on this baptism of fire tour.
Why then do I believe he holds the key? Precisely for the reason outlined at the start of this article; there is nowhere to hide. Should he crumble on that first morning at the Gabba, or should Strauss at any moment find himself unable to throw the rookie the ball the workload on the frontline bowlers increases by a third. While they may be able to scrape through a single Test match like that, the added stress and strain would surely effect their performance later in the series as exhaustion builds up.
This is why Finn is so important. I don’t expect him to match Swann for wickets, Broad for fire or Anderson for mercurial talent. However, the other three need to know that they are part of a four man attack, all with their separate jobs to do. Swann’s is to average between 3 and 4 wickets per innings, something he is more than capable of if he doesn’t have to try and do it all on his own. Finn’s job can be boiled down to a much simpler level. He has to do enough to stay in the team, simply by being economical and chipping in with a couple of wickets here and there. If he maintains his place until the the last ball is bowled at the SCG in January I believe England have a fantastic chance of securing victory. If he can’t, I am not certain there I enough depth in this bowling unit to avoid giving Australia at best a head start in the series, at worst the urn.
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