England’s lack of left-arm pace could prove costly at World Cup
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Version 0 of 1. When, in what proved a Damascene moment and against his normal pragmatism, Andy Flower jettisoned his plans for opening batsmen at the 2010 World Twenty20 and turned them on their head, it was seen as the key element in England’s ultimate success in the Caribbean. Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter, on the back of some pyrotechnics for the England Lions in a practice match against Flower’s squad, injected firepower at the start of the innings and Kieswetter went on to take the man of the match award in the final against Australia – showing, incidentally, that favourites do not win all the time. There was another decision, though, taken much closer to the event, that had as much impact. The England captain, Paul Collingwood, had just come from playing for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League and had been struck by the influence that left-arm pace bowlers were having. England possessed one such bowler in Ryan Sidebottom, who had been a regular in the T20 side during that period when almost singlehandedly he was holding the England pace attack together, but was now no longer in the first-choice side. Collingwood’s insistence changed that: Jimmy Anderson, who had been expected to play, was omitted, Sidebottom came in and sent down a new-ball maiden to Graeme Smith in England’s final warm-up match before that tournament to set down a marker. His mixture of angle, swing, yorkers, slow-ball bouncers and general nous were one of the competition’s successes. Since then England, while fully cognisant of the need to find a successor to Sidebottom, for both limited-overs formats, have been unable to do so. Harry Gurney has been tried extensively and come up short in his bowling. Northamptonshire’s David Willey offered hope but injury has held him back. They looked instead at bowlers who might offer skilled variety, such as Jade Dernbach, but while he had a box full of toys he rarely understood which one to play with at any given time. And so circumstance has forced England to go with the best they have, which is a battery of fast-ish and fast-medium right-armers, none of whom can lend the variety that will play an important part in this World Cup. If we take the 1987 tournament in India and Pakistan as the first in which teams started to come to grips with ODI cricket as an entity in itself rather than a shorter form of Test matches – Steve Waugh’s use of slower balls or the promotion of Craig McDermott as a pinch-hitter, for example – then it is clear that the World Cup has generally been won by a side containing a left-arm pace bowler. In the 1987 Australian win it was the lanky Bruce Reid; 1992 was when Wasim Akram famously demolished the England middle order; in 1996 Sri Lanka had Chaminda Vaas; in 1999 and 2003 Australia won without such benefit but possessed an attack of rare talent while their final opponents on both occasions, first Pakistan and then India, had Akram and Zaheer Khan respectively. In 2007, meanwhile, Nathan Bracken opened the Australian bowling against Sri Lanka, who had Vaas once more; and in Mumbai, in the last tournament, Zaheer helped India to a famous victory. The chances are that this World Cup will be won by a side continuing on that theme. England have already come up against Mitchell Starc and James Faulkner of Australia in the past week, while Trent Boult is fundamental to an excellent New Zealand pace attack that could also include Mitchell McClenaghan. South Africa will probably go with their three usual right-arm suspects of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander but could also include Wayne Parnell as a fourth option. For England, though, it is a mode of attack that has been mystifyingly under-represented, not only recently but for the past century. Since 1964, only Sidebottom (79), John Lever (73), Allan Mullally (58) and Jeff Jones (44) have taken more than 20 Test wickets, bettered since the first world war only by Bill Voce’s 98 wickets. In one-day internationals, Gurney’s 11 wickets bizarrely make him the fourth most successful England left-armer, behind Mullally (63), Sidebottom (29) and Lever (24). By way of comparison, Akram took 502 in ODIs, Vaas 400, both geniuses admittedly, but there are still 16 left-arm pace bowlers with more wickets than England’s best. The curiosity is that England have been fortunate in having a consistent supply of high-class left-arm spin bowlers, a line stretching back from Monty Panesar, through Ashley Giles, Phil Tufnell, Phil Edmonds, Derek Underwood, Tony Lock and back to Hedley Verity and Wilfred Rhodes. The successor to this chain has yet to emerge but it is almost as if there is a heritage there. Not so with pace. England have a chance of competing well in the coming weeks but it would take a huge leap of faith to see them in a position to win, and the lack of bowling variety is a strong reason why. So, when the dust has settled on this World Cup, an absolute priority should be to find and nurture left-arm pace bowlers. It is not all about thunder-bats. They cannot win without it. |