Is the current English bowling attack best in the world?

That factor is the spin department for England. While in recent times South Africa have had to grapple with the likes of Paul Harris, Robin Peterson and Johan Botha, who are more suited for a restrictive kind of job, the English attack consists of a spinner as good as Graeme Swann.

Swann doesn’t have a doosra or a carrom ball as most modern spinners do. His method of operation is the old-fashioned one. He relies on the pivot rotation of his body and a whirlwind action to give the ball enough air and get drift on it.

The strong fingers give the ball a hard tweak to impart a huge amount of spin on the ball. He is also endowed with a sound cricketing brain which he uses abundantly to outfox the batsmen with subtle variations.

Graeme Swann – proving to be the difference between the English and South African bowling dominance

With the amount of cricket being played these days, injuries go hand in hand with fast bowling and having a set of good battle-ready backup seamers is a luxury few teams can afford.

In this aspect too, the English steal a march over the other Test teams as with Steven Finn, Chris Tremlett and Graham Onions waiting in the wings, they are probably the only team whose second line of pace attack has a combined experience of 43 Tests.

In the spin department too, there is Monty Panesar, a veteran of 48 Tests, who, with his left arm orthodox spin, compliments Swann brilliantly.

The English attack further established their credentials in the recent series win against India which saw an outstanding display by both seamers and spinners on the slow sub-continental tracks.

On the other hand, the Australian bowlers were dealt with ease during the whitewash in India this year and save the odd Test, the South African bowlers have never been able to impose themselves in the subcontinent. In fact, it has been quite a while since the Proteas last registered an away series win against either India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan.

The only thing that can be pointed out against the current English attack is the absence of a decent fifth bowler. They don’t have someone who can do what Jacques Kallis does for South Africa, Shane Watson does for Australia or even Ravindra Jadeja does for India.

In a sense, it is tragic that a side which had its previous great squads built around match winning all-rounders like Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff now has to depend on the part time bowlers like Joe Root and Jonathan Trott to do the fifth bowler’s job.

In Tim Bresnan, Steven Finn, Chris Tremlett, Graham Onions and Monty Panesar, England have the depth in bowling, but lack a fifth bowler who can provide flexibility to their attack

This predicament means often their bowling plans have to be centred around the four bowlers, and it doesn’t allow them to be flexible with their strategy.

This probably explains why the English bowlers seem clueless, almost shell shocked, the moment they are faced with anything out of the ordinary. Also, on unresponsive wickets, when pushed beyond a certain point, the shoulders tend to drop and they are unable to force the issue.

A fine example of that is the first Test at the Oval last year against South Africa, where on a flat pitch which offered no help, the English bowlers were ground to the dust by an unbeaten 377-run association between Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis.

Similarly, in the current Ashes series, the under-performing Australian batting line-up raked up more than 500 runs when they batted in favourable conditions in the third Test.

In the first Test too, a similar story unfolded as the little known Ashton Agar smashed a belligerent 98, adding 163 runs for the last wicket with Phil Hughes, both world records, as England waited for him to make a mistake rather than plan his dismissal.

The current series is secured, and by the looks of it, England are all set to begin a long reign of domination over the Ashes.

But the team director Andy Flower has time and again made it clear that the ultimate goal for them is to have a sustained run as the world number one team in Tests, and whether they are able to achieve the goal or not will depend on how the bowlers fare over the next few seasons.

At the moment, the English attack, though clinical and efficient in their methods, with the safety-first approach, run the risk of falling short of their potential.