Do cricketers improve with facial hair?

Once again England are looking like a decent one-day side (SA 167-8 as I write), forcing me turn to the blog in confusion

I see that Steve Harmison has again bowled well, removing Hashim Amla, the only South African batsman to really get going. He is also sporting a fairly trendy goatee, as he likes to do now and again. Maybe it’s just me, but I think he bowls better, and more menacingly, when he has a beard. I also find Corey Collymore with a beard is a few miles quicker and a bit more intimidating than when clean shaven.

And this got me thinking that, Cricinfo, for all its statistical brilliance, does not break down cricketers’ careers into periods when they have facial hair and periods when they don’t. This is a shame. I am convinced that facial hair improves a cricketer’s performance and that Steve Harmison and Corey Collymore's figures would back this up.

I’d be interested to know if this theory holds true elsewhere. Did David Boon or Merv Hughes ever have clean-shaven phases to their careers? How did they perform? Read more...

What is the Champions Trophy for?

To avoid the confusing scenes on the TV of England looking like a half decent one-day side (SA 26-2 when I started), I thought I’d jot down a few thoughts on the “postponement” of the ICC trophy.

1.Personally, I think the tournament should have gone ahead. The terrorist threat has been exaggerated because cricketers (and maybe administrators?) don’t want to go to Pakistan. I’ve never been to Pakistan, so I am, like all bloggers, speculating here. But why would terrorists seeking to further their cause in a cricket-mad country like Pakistan think it was a good idea to blow up international cricketers? Try to imagine a terrorist organization dedicated to the cause of English independence aiming to attract support by bombing premiership football matches. Unlikely.

2. It is not a postponement, more of a delayed cancellation. Michael Clarke and Cricket Australia’s comments after the announcement make it pretty obvious most of the players didn’t have the slightest intention of going. Australia haven’t toured Pakistan since 1998, and, assuming Pakistan do manage to prove the security situation has improved, Australia would need to postpone a series against India to play the Champions Trophy in October 2009. Hell will freeze over before that happens.



3. Once again the small nations are getting screwed over. Pakistan is not going to play a test this year and the team is going rapidly downhill. Osman Samiuddin has written a great article for Cricinfo about the wider significance of the decision. Assuming the powers that be do find a way to force Australia, England, South Africa etc to play in the Champions Trophy there in 2009, the West Indies will then be forced to host yet another CT in 2010 (I can see the empty stands now). After all that we will then move on to the 2011 World Cup, which will be held in the four Asian nations (security conditions permitting). Do we really need three identical 50 over tournaments in a row? Which lead me on to point four:

4. Why not just use this as an opportunity to get rid of the trophy? What is the point of having a tournament that exactly mimics the World Cup? The ICC’s website gives no clues, stating simply: “The ICC organises a second 50-overs per side event in addition to the ICC Cricket World Cup called the ICC Champions Trophy, which takes place every two years.” Apparently it is officially known as the “ICC knockout”. The ICC could kill the tournament off and use the space created to put a longer 20-20 Champions League in place. Or just give the players a rest, for once.

Anyway, enough depressing blather. South Africa are now 45-5. Broad is the new McGrath. Now I’ve got another reason to be annoyed the Champions Trophy has been postponed: England would clearly have won it!

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My Favourite Cricketing Monikers

1. The King of Spain

During Ashley Giles’s benefit year at Warwickshire, he commissioned a couple of hundred mugs bearing his own mug and the catchy logo “Ashley Giles: King of Spin”.

An inspired error in printing the logo led to his staking an unusual claim on a Bourbon dynasty, Il Rey de España was crowned. The moniker stuck and competed with Henry Blofeld’s rather cruel (but apt) suggestion that his run up resembled a wheelie bin being trundled to the crease. The unlikely charm of both somehow fitted an enduring cricketer, who despite never winning the purists over produced match and series winning performances with the ball- often took us over the line in run chases and was one of the safest gully fielders we’ve ever had. Viva Ashley!

2. ‘Creepy’ Crawley

John Crawley was one of the best players of spin-bowling of his generation and third to Ramprakash and Hick of the great English batsman to be prolific at first class level but not to play a full part at Test level. However despite playing fewer Tests than either of the others, his Test stats were respectable in his era (1800 runs in the mid 30s, and a masterful hundred against Murali) and whenever he was in the side he was one of our toughest batsmen to dismiss.

Expected to follow Atherton from Cambridge great to England great via greatness at Lancashire, he now plies his trade as a veteran run-machine for Hants consistently scoring big on an unforgiving Rose Bowl track. I don’t think there’s any particular story associated with the nickname, I just love it.

3. Tugga and Afghanistan

Born four minutes apart, the Waugh twins started their career competing for one slot but both ended up with stratospheric careers for the baggy greens. Stephen “Tugga” Waugh was one of the great Test captains (or more uncharitably captained arguably the greatest Test side of all time) and arguably the most durable batsman of his era. His positivity as skipper, armed with Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting and Hayden helped to accelerate the transformation of Test cricket into a faster scoring, higher-octane sport.

In the era in which they played, Tests were unarguably the blue riband format for the Aussie public- thus Mark ‘Afghanistan’ Waugh could be compared to the ‘forgotten war’ of the early 80s. If both had been starting their careers today Mark, with his explosive one-day batting, great fielding and deceptively good off-spin, would have been an ideal Twenty:20 player and their prominence might just have been reversed.

4. Aloo

“Does he not like potatoes?” This was an inspired piece of crowd sledging by an Indian fan during an ODI in Canada of all places. So incensed was the comfortably proportioned Pakistan skipper Inzamam ul-Huq that he left the field of play, threatening the fan with his bat. I’ve yet to see an other cricketer wound up by being compared to a vegetable- perhaps this could be an area where the Barmy Army might just give us an edge. I’ve often thought gangly young Indian pacer Ishant Sharma looks a little bit like an Asparagus…

5. The Shermanator

Shane Warne’s sledge from second slip to Ian Bell during the 2005 Ashes was brilliantly inventive because like all great nicknames it had a kernel of insight to it. Bell physically resembles the ginger nerd from the American Pie franchise but he was also a callow youth in that series. The Aussies would have seen his technique and potential to score runs against them, but Warne also looked into his soul and saw a scared youngster, new to the side, insecure of place (he was effectively playing at the expense of England’s best batsman at the time, Graham Thorpe) and unsure of how to approach the two greatest bowlers in cricket. Boy did it work, a class player made little impact on the series, and it took tours playing the generally less ‘in your face’ bowlers of South Asia for him to rebuild his game.

Even now, a veteran of 40-odd tests often looks worryingly insecure. You get the sense he actually works on trying to have presence at the crease. If he’s thinking about that, by definition he will be lacking. England desperately need him to flourish. If he does, he will be one of the top batsmen in the world, and we’ll need a new nickname. I’ve always thought “tinker” would be good.

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A settled Jimmy....

Is this the summer that finally cements James Anderson’s place in the England side? Throughout the recent series against South Africa he demonstrated real verve leading the attack, swinging the ball both ways and achieving, dare I say it, some consistency. Since his debut back in 2003, Jimmy has been a fairly peripheral figure; the ‘fab four’ of 2005 left him sidelined, and when opportunities arose they were usually spoiled by either injury or a wayward performance. His uncanny knack of following magical spells with frustratingly woeful garbage was legendary, exemplified by contrasting performances only five months ago - a sparkling outing at Wellington which turned to pure dross in Napier. Form seemed irrelevant. ‘Jimmy No-Aim’ would rear his ugly head without warning and without reprieve.

Fast forward five months, and there can be are few English players as satisfied with their performances this summer. Jimmy took the new ball in each match and bowled with aplomb, causing the South African batsman real problems with his testing lines and late swing, and finishing the series as England’s leading wicket taker. With Matthew Hoggard struggling for pace at Yorkshire and Ryan Sidebottom’s back proving a shaggy-haired question mark, Anderson’s place in the side for the next 12 months looks as assured as his bowling. Let’s hope it remains so. Because with Simon Jones getting back to his best and plenty of attacking options for England to choose from, Jimmy needs to maintain this consistency to maintain his position....

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England's Ashes obsession

It doesn’t take much to get England players and fans optimistic about their chances in an Ashes series. One victory in a dead rubber after badly losing a home series seems to be enough.

While Kevin Pietersen barely put a foot wrong on the field, his immediate declaration that his team was good enough to win back the Ashes was misguided. Obviously there is nothing wrong with pundits such as Ronnie’s Ghost looking ahead to the Ashes, but you would expect the England team to know better.

Australia had exactly the right response: silence and then some brilliantly patronising comments by Tim Nielsen. The telling quote for me was: “We've got a couple of big series coming up that are taking up most of our thinking at the moment.”

Isn’t that the case for England as well? If I’m right England have a Champions Trophy one day competition (if they deem Pakistan safe enough), an opportunity to avenge last summer’s home defeat against India, a series against the Windies and then a potentially very tricky series against Sri Lanka, who recently moved above England in the ICC Test Championship, can beat all comers at home and now have a mystery spinner. Given that England once managed to make Paul Adams look like Shane Warne , we should be a bit worried. All that remains is for people to start excusing poor performances by Harmison on tour by saying “it will be different during the Ashes” and another 5-0 defeat becomes a real possibility.

Two other points stand out for me in this opening round of Ashes speculation. First, the idea put forward by Andrew Millar on Cricinfo today that Pietersen as captain is the Aussies worst nightmare doesn’t make much sense to me. Usually in a test series the Aussies target a team’s captain and best batsman. Haven’t we just made their life easier by combining the two? Plus there’s plenty of opportunity for sly digs about his nationality.

Second, a few weeks ago the ECB was complaining about the fact that India’s cricket board had denied the fans the chance to visit some of the country’s great cricket venues during their tour. But why should India bother putting England in the decent venues if our tour there is nothing more than an insignificant warm up for the Ashes?

We could, possibly, win the Ashes, but it’s not even vaguely likely at the moment. We would need our entire team to be fit, and to have the kind of luck we had last time (McGrath’s injury, Ponting’s bad call at Edgbaston, Gillespie losing his mojo etc etc).

Most importantly it is vital that we start the Ashes after notching up a long sequence of victories. And we can only do that by taking each match as it comes, which is the cliché Pietersen should have used after the Oval victory. Read more...

A blow for Jones....

Simon Jones has spent the summer proving all the obituary writers wrong by taking over forty wickets for Worcestershire at 18 runs a pop. With talk of an England recall abound, Jones was selected for the England Lions squad to play two one day matches against South Africa starting this Thursday. However, this morning he pulled out with a hamstring injury.

Time is pressing for Jones to make his England case in time for the Ashes. With plenty of fast-bowling options available, he needs a stand-out performance against the likes of South Africa to prove to the selectors that he is really back, and can rediscover the devastating form of 2004-5. He has one thing is his favour: the memory of the reverse swing he produced throughout the summer of 2005 will still haunt the Australian batsmen. They will not want to face him in similar form next summer. Jimmy Anderson (for the 2007 Ashes and THAT over in the 2003 World Cup) offers them much happier memories....

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CMJ: rights and wrongs of selection

There is an interesting piece on the cricinfo website on the selectors' views of County Cricket:

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/364841.html

Christopher Martin-Jenkins makes a decent case for the view that England's selectors (particularly those tasked with following the county game) which can be summarised as "to a man they seem to me to take too much notice of a bowler's speed and of any cricketer's age, picking too often on potential rather than performance".

He highlights two cricketers in particular: David Sales of Northants and Mark Davies of Durham.

Seven or eight years ago, the Fletcher-Hussain (Graveney) approach to selection took shape. In the 1990s, I would argue that good performances at county level would be enough to ensure a player got at least a couple of England caps. This was (is still) talked about as "recognition" as a box to be ticked as part of any good county player's career.

F-H (G) took a different approach. As CMJ says, they went for potential, and backed their ability to pick talent. Players with often middling first-class records were identified (usually at the age of 25 or younger) and picked when more senior, consistently successful players were probably "due a bit of recognition".

And it worked. Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Steven Harmison all had unspectacular county records but obvious potential to take the Test side forward (be it technical, physical or temperamental) and all of whom have produced world (rather than first) class performances.

To return to CMJ's core criticism, I think he wants it both ways. There is a strong case for saying that under Peter Moores and Geoff Miller, we have returned to valuing county experience to a greater degree. This has met with success, particularly in two cases, both a key part of the title-winning Notts side from a few seasons back.

Ryan Sidebottom is a better bowler now than when he played against Pakistan in 2001, but Fletcher, having disgarded him then, failed to monitor (or listen to the reports) of Sidebottom's improved pace and ability to swing the ball back into the right-hander. Secondly Graeme Swann, taken on tour in 1999-2000 and written off as indisciplined, has been a very consistent performer with ball and bat for Northants and Notts, done well on England A tours and was brought back into the one-day side last year. Even under Fletcher there was occasionally scope for picking a good county pro (Martin Saggers, Shaun Udal), and Swann could be in Udal's slot in the Test side as second spinner this winter.

The Mooresian/Millerian fondness for in-form county performers has also led to some odd-ball moves. The selection of Pattinson (in the wickets at Trent Bridge, which, like the Riverside CMJ demands is taken in context) attracted criticism from most quarters (including CMJ I believe). Last year's Twenty20 world cup saw players like Darren Maddy and (eeek!) Chris Schofield getting a run out, as well as more deserving cases like Dmitri Mascheranas.

What I am getting at (eventually) is that neither approach is without fault and a balance between the two (which M&M are close to) must be struck. The danger of having a too dogmatic selection policy is that it might ignore a young genius unmotivated by the grind of county cricket and equally might ignore an older player who has improved through hard work and experience into a test class player. Predictably the Australians have it pretty much sorted. With the admittedly easier task of selecting from a smaller, higher level pool of domestic first-class cricket, they are able to bring in players like Mike Hussey, Darren Lehmann and Stuart Clark, but also to give the likes of Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson and Luke Ronchi a go early in their careers.

CMJ's two examples (Sales and Davies) are different cases. Sales, as readers may recall, had a particularly prolific period of scoring from about 1999-2002, which included several double hundreds and at list one triple. He was on the 'A' tour and a dark horse for selection in the winter of 2002-3 (I think) when he was badly injured playing beach volleyball. This was pure misfortune, and despite solid scoring ever since, I think he's missed his chance. This could be pure prejudice but a look at his physique these days does not inspire an image of an elite athlete. In fact he makes Rob Key look like Peter Crouch.

Davies is a little younger than Sales, and has an exceptional first class record with the ball. But, as CMJ concedes, he is bowling at the Riverside (where admittedly he has a better record than England bowlers Harmison, Plunkett and Onions) and he is definitely medium pace. It is telling that when Durham have all bowlers available he rarely gets a start at the moment, partly down to his own injuries in recent years. He has merited a place on the A team in the past but I think (and this is pure prejudice) that he is emblematic of the good pro who would be outgunned at Test level. Gentle, even though it is accurate, medium pace on flat pitch just doesn't bowl sides out any more. If he was playing on the English minefields of the 90s I would seriously think about picking him but he is not. Plus he can't bat.

Ultimately selectors are supposed to be able to identify talent on an individual basis to fit the current and future needs of the team. We have to back them to do this or sack them. No need to crack them.

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Gayle's guide to staying captain

While everyone in England has been focusing on Michael Vaughan’s resignation and KP’s appointment, over in Jamaica Chris Gayle has shown the level of political skill needed to stay captain.

After a reasonable test series against the Aussies (2-0 defeat but every match ran to 5 days) and a disastrous one-day series (5-0 loss), Gayle decided not to hang around and wait for the sack. Instead he resigned and let it be known that he was doing it because he disagreed with the Board's selection policy. I guess he was referring to the way spinners such as Amit Jaggernauth are picked and discarded more or less at random.

He timed it well, as the Windies cricket board was in the middle of a scandal. It’s not clear exactly what has been going on, but it’s something to do with details of the president’s house in St Lucia being leaked, leading to a few sacking and suspensions.

The result? Today Gayle has graciously decided to reconsider his resignation, after talking to players and fans etc etc. Presumably he now has a greater say in selection as well. Definitely a politician in the making. This tactic probably wouldn’t have worked for Vaughan, as the ECB is a stronger organization, but under-pressure Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik could consider trying this tactic.

This about-turn could also be further evidence of the IPL influencing cricket boards. Chris Gayle is a high-value IPL player and he may have threatened to walk away from the Windies altogether unless he was given more power as captain. There was also a lot of speculation last week that Pietersen’s appointment as England captain was designed to stop him defecting to the IPL. It will be interesting to see if other countries start following England and the West Indies' lead by appointing their best 20-20 players as captains. If so then we could soon see Misbah-Ul-Haq as captain of Pakistan and Brendon Mccullum in charge of New Zealand. Andrew Symonds captaining Australia would be fun, but is probably a bit of a long shot.

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England's fast men for the Ashes- finding the right combination

What is the ideal combination for next summer? Here are what I think are the unarguable facts:

1. If fit, Flintoff bats somewhere in the top seven (with a wicket-keeper batsman) and is one of a three or four man pace attack. Collingwood or Bopara is also in top six to offer a fifth bowler if needed.

2. Barring spectacular loss of form, Panesar plays.

Otherwise, we don't know much. A potentially hard winter in India (with mainly one-dayers) is followed by a nice tour of the Caribbean (which might be harder than we think) and a summer start against a potentially very weak Sri Lanka side. Then the Aussies.

To my mind, there are currently 10 bowlers fighting for a maximum of three slots. In no particular order:

1. Steve Harmison

Showed us what he can offer in this Test. Only Mahmood can offer the same combination of extreme pace (consistently high 80s, occasionally ~93mph) and awkward bounce. Over 200 test wickets in the bag and still the right side of 30. When firing, and in favourable conditions, he is arguably the best fast-bowler in the world.

What has he proved by his comeback? I would actually say very little other than, like Andrew Caddick before him, he needs many overs under his belt in order to be in any sort of rhythm. I was staggered by how badly prepared he was in Hamilton- on an admittedly sluggish pitch (although Chris Martin was 10mph quicker) the ball never got up past 78mph. Harmy's body language was shot, and his mental state obviously brittle.

Perhaps he has done enough to merit a starting place on the India tour but: a) with no serious four day cricket for England after today he will have to get some games under his belt under his own steam, and b) the Test pitches (Mumbai and Ahmedabad) are dustbowls- Harmison might come into it, but we are definitely looking for two spinners in both.

If we are looking solely at the Ashes, there might be an argument in picking GBH anyway, and relying on the good memories of touring Windies (let him take the wife and kids) and the confidence boost of beating up some young Sri Lankans on juicy early season pitches to go into the series brimming with confidence. The Aussie top order is not what it was in 2005, and even then a fired-up GBH was too much for the
m.

Verdict: Needs to tour, but needs to know it is his last chance. If being dropped is the wake-up call he says it was, and he can put in the necessary work, he still adds much needed hostility to the one paced (Anderson, Sidebottom, Broad) and swing reliant attack we've used this season. Good enough to take twenty wickets against NZ but not India, SA or Oz. If he plays, it is important he has the new ball.

2. James Anderson

Along with Ian Bell, Jimmy is one of the two cricketers I've been championing for the past 5 years or so. At his best (which he has been consistently close to this summer), he bowls 85-88mph, swinging the ball late and both ways without massive changes in action. We haven't had a bowler like that since Botham in his pomp and there hasn't been one in world cricket since pre-beard Jason Gillespie (ironically the closest two are the junkie Asif and our own Simon Jones).

This summer, I have been really impressed with his fitness. He has bowled more overs than any other paceman (Broad and Sidebottom have both faded with the workload) and has maintained his pace and action (and subsequently direction) on flat pitches over long spells. This is what he was missing in previous years, and something he needed to develop. He was Troy Cooley's standout cock-up in the Ashes-winning era, a natural but potentially crippling action was remoulded and he lost his zip and late swing.

Verdict: I think he has earned the right to stay with the new ball, and with his outstanding fielding and improved batting, has demonstrated that he deserves a starting place on tour. There's still time for him to mess it up though, and being a key component in both ODI and Test attacks may mean we need to rest him for some of the ODIs in the next 6 months. He's just gone past 100 wickets, and at 26 should be just entering his peak years as a bowler.

3. Ryan Sidebottom

Carried the pace attack for a year from the middle of last summer to the middle of this one. I think he did an excellent job filling Hoggard's boots and went through a luckless period, only to reap massive rewards against New Zealand, who could not play him.

Throughout that period, his pace was up in the mid-high 80s, which allied to his probing lines and ability to bring the ball back into the right hander as well as away, made him a very difficult proposition for any-right hander. Left arm pace also adds variety to an otherwise samey-attack. Sidebottom at Notts was always capable of bowling at this pace, but generally saved it for one or two spells per match as it resulted in back pain. In his eagerness to impress at Test level, he maintained that pace throughout, but it now looks as if he's buggered his back.

At a reduced pace of 78-83 mph (as he has been against South Africa) I simply don't see him being effective against good batsmen in Test cricket.

Verdict: Benefited from injuries and loss of form by the established bowlers and took full grasp of a well deserved opportunity. Now needs to prove his own fitness to get back into the side. If he can get back to full pace without knackering his spine then he needs to be back in the side. Otherwise other bowlers have a better claim to the new ball. The imminent recall of Matt Prior may affect him as well. Despite years of keeping to the (slower [my pace Pete]) Lewry at Sussex, he struggled to keep to Siddy and dropped or missed eleven chances off his bowling over an eight Test period.

4. Chris Tremlett

The new Jimmy Anderson. Perennial twelfth man when it would be much better bowling for Hants. The fact that horses-for-courses Pattinson (who doesn't make this list) was included at Headingley suggests that the management still don't trust a man who has been prone to breaking down mid-game over the years.

Last year we saw glimpses of why he is so highly regarded. A more consistent bowler than Harmison, if slightly slower, his 6'8'' frame has added significant muscle and an extra yard of pace. He is a clever bowler with a lot of pedigree and did well against India last year. However he is clearly fairly low down the pecking order and will be lucky to make the Test tour if everyone else is fit.

Verdict: In trying to fulfil the ever-expanding tour schedules, it is vital that bowlers like Tremlett are given experience, at least in the ODI side. If Harmison and Broad are both injured, we need a reliable tall bowler in the side and he fits the bill. He has shown some talent with the bat and if he could develop it he might strengthen his case.

5. Simon Jones

In the wickets this year for Worcester and will have the opportunity in a week's time to unleash himself on the South Africans when he plays them as part of the Lions team.

The best exponent of reverse swing bowling outside of Wasim and Waqar, he is a magically gifted strike-bowler on his day and his spells in the summer of 2005 were some of the best I've seen from an England bowler. If he can prove his fitness he surely comes back into the side. I haven't seen him bowl this year but apparently he is back up to pace. He and Flintoff resuming their roles as change bowlers by next summer would send shockwaves through the Aussies.

Verdict: We have missed him enormously since the Trent Bridge Test in 2005. His presence (combined with the development of Panesar in the intervening years) would add greatly to England's ability to threaten a batting line-up throughout 80 overs. He will have to be handled carefully. If he is not going to play in the Test side in India (where he would be very useful) then he should tour with the Lions rather than being a twelfth man. As with Harmison, the Windies tour in 2003 was the making of him, and it might provide the best opportunity for a come-back.

6. Stuart Broad

The future, but is he good enough at present? A boy who only started bowling seriously four years ago, he needs to decide what kind of bowler he wants to be.

I think he should focus on being a McGrath or Pollock-like metronome with the new ball. He is still trying to hard and struggling for pace he doesn't naturally have. Too often in spells his radar goes awry when he looks for a magic 90 mph snorter and produces a 84mph long hop. Good batsmen earn their crust dispatching balls like that at this level and he will go for lots of runs if he continues that approach.

Tellingly, he has been a much more effective one-day bowler to date. Where economy is its own reward, he has been content to bowl back of a length in the corridor outside off-stump and let the pressure of slow scoring generate wickets. If you have a strike bowler at the other end, this approach will also reap reward at test level.

His batting has to be taken into account. He is easily England's best bowler batting at number eight (discounting Graeme Swann) and has shown great promise. The selectors should and will ignore calls to push him up the order. He's generally scored runs against the old ball on flat pitches (and shown up the incompetence of the top order). Brett Lee and Stuart Clark would be licking their lips to see him in at six or seven.

Verdict: Definitely worth his place in the ODI side, but I don't think he'll be the finished article by the Ashes. Post 2009 he is one of a crop of talented youngsters (with Bopara, Davies & Rashid) who England should be looking at in order to try to become the dominant side in world cricket. I think he will end his test career with over 4000 runs and over 400 wickets but he has time on his side.

7. Matthew Hoggard

Two indifferent Tests and Hoggard, our most consistent bowler in recent years is junked. Definitely was very harshly dealt with, but would he be back into the side on merit? I was disgusted that Pattinson got the nod at Headingley when Hoggard. However I saw him bowling for Yorkshire the other day and his zip was gone. When I saw him bowling live against New Zealand for the Lions, he and Graeme Onions had taken the new ball and were bowling to Aaron Redmond (on 130odd) and Chris Martin (on nought). Hoggard didn't trouble Martin! As much as I hate to say it, I think the combination of Anderson and Sidebottom both offer things Hoggard doesn't, and unless he can find another gear he looks finished. He can look back on a fantastic career, but it will be with understandable bitterness when he sees the myriad of chances given to no-hopers like Paul Collingwood among the batsmen.

Verdict: I hope I'm wrong, but he didn't know it was over til it was too late. Now if we ever needed him, would he be there?

8. Graeme Onions

Good, nippy, nice high action. Looks decent, but doubt he has the weapons to hurt a good side on a flat pitch. Does get both swing and seam movement, but only away from the right-hander. Compared with Jimmy and Siddy, this may not be enough...

Verdict: Obviously well-regarded by the selectors and has come close to making his debut. Like Tremlett is probably a good guy to rotate.

9. Sajid Mahmood

Incredible potential, still young. At times he has carried the injury-hit Lancashire side this year, and is capable of reversing the ball at lightening pace as well as getting Harmison-like bounce off a length. When he and Harmison demolished the Pakistanis at Old Trafford two years ago, it was one of the most destructive England bowling displays of recent years.

However he struggles with consistency, and struggles when batsmen go after him. In the same season, I saw Jayasuria and Tharanga climbing into him at Lords and finding it very easy to take him apart.

Verdict: Needs to learn from his county colleague Jimmy Anderson. Needs to demonstrate his frighteningly great skills week in, week out, but is a player who could potentially add a dimension to the side in years to come.

10. Liam Plunkett

Just a year ago he was occupying Stuart Broad's place in both test and one day sides. At times produced extremely effective spells and was very unlucky to be jettisoned for the 2007 world cup. Still very young, and with a text-book action, which should allow him to add a yard of pace if he puts more time in in the gym. Off the field discipline looks tricky- he is a boozer and it has caught up with him a number of times.

Verdict: I think he will come back, and offers a great combination of nagging bowling, lightening fielding and useful hitting to the one day side. Could be a dark horse for 20:Twenty in the next year or so.

Bowling attack for the Ashes:

New ball: Harmison and Anderson (unless RS recovers fully, and he or Broad come in for GBH unless he has a good tour of India)
Old ball: Flintoff and Jones

NB. There are other bowlers who may force their way in through the shorter formats- Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan and Graham Napier are all long-shots to getting a place as a hard-hitting bowling all-rounder.

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Fat Bob. England Calling?

Drop Strauss. Pick Bob. Read more...