England: Underdogs to Heroes

England receive the Test Mace to show their No 1 status

Ever since that humiliating 51 all out score in the West Indies in early 2009, England’s rise to the top of the test rankings has been like a steam locomotive slowing getting out of the station with the Ashes win two years ago, slowly gathering pace until hitting top speed down under and now with the 4-0 whitewash against India.

This is only the seventh time a team has whitewashed another in a four or five match series – with the last being in 2007 which we shall not mention – showing just how much of a gulf in class both physically and mentally there has been between the two sides. At the few times England struggled with the bat, in came Prior and Broad and counter attacked. When Tendulkar and Mishra put together a century partnership, the bowlers didn’t crumble like the Indian attack, they stuck with it and brought about an ‘English’ style collapse. England have totally crushed any challenge that has been presented to them and despite the typical British weather, a whitewash is the fair result.

Comparisons will inevitably be made with the 2005 Ashes winning side which quite rightly has gone down in English folklore. But is this really the comparison we should be making right now? Six years ago, England were the underdogs, the playground hero set to take on the bully after years of pain. Now we are the bullies. Fans everywhere are going to remember the hidings we gave two of the great superpowers of cricket and look at the calendar, see an away tour to England and let out a low groan. If England are looking to dominate not just test cricket but also the one day scene, they need to be compared to the great Australia side.

Of the 2005 Australia first eleven, only four current England players would definitely get in the side. Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Alastair Cook and Jimmy Anderson would all get in the place in that great Aussie side that dominated so many sides in the nineties and early noughties. Pietersen has well and truly returned to his old self. He’s gone through that dip in form that almost all batsmen have in their career and looks to be back to his brilliant best.

Bell's growth from boy to man has been wonderful to watch from an English point of view.

Bell’s performances over the past year and a half must inspire every dropped cricketer in the world. The boy with all the technique in the world has now become the man with all the technique in the world and has proved he can destroy a bowling attack just as well as Pietersen.

Cook is definitely not a pay money to see batsman but neither is Rahul Dravid and look at what he has achieved. The man who can’t sweat is the run machine of this era. He is set to break all of England’s run scoring records and at Edgbaston proved that once he gets in, you have to wait for him to get himself out.

Anderson is Mr.Consistency, the King of Swing and without doubt the leader of the England’s attack. He might not get the headlines of Broad but a wicket here and there with the odd fiver thrown in shows just how valuable he is to the side with the new ball.

In an ideal world, this would be 6/5 with the wicketkeeper the odd decider and although it is harsh on Prior, Gilchrist will be regarded as the best of all time so Australia will always have the upper hand. Stuart Broad is definitely going to get better and better and his batting might give him the edge over someone like Lee in time.

Obviously the names of Hayden, Ponting, McGrath and Warne are untouchable but if four players of a team who have just reached the test match summit can already get in a historically great side, what will two/three years do?

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