The English Debacle

After their defeat to South Africa in the Test series and with more Test matches against top-class sides in the future, England’s chances of moving to the No.1 spot in Test cricket look slimmer than ever. England are now ranked at number two with the possibility of being pushed down, if Australia manages to emerge victorious in the forthcoming Ashes, both home and away. England have been relentless at home, but this loss was too demoralizing to the hosts.

England’s captain still had excuses. He stated the bowlers were not getting the swing consistently with the new ball, which ultimately made the job easier for South Africa. Actually, what Strauss said was perfectly right. Their strike bowlers, Broad and Anderson haven’t got the swing right even with the new-ball, probably because of the conditions which prevailed during the Test series. England’s bowlers weren’t aggressive enough during their side’s heavy defeat to South Africa. They, perhaps, thought that the wicket would assist them. But this time, the wicket was not generating swing or seam, which eventually made their plans futile. Also, they seemed to be overconfident because of the fact that they’ve won convincingly against Windies, who are in fact a mediocre side.

They seemed to employ only one tactic and they didn’t have any alternative plans to get rid of South Africa. This was clearly seen in both the first and third Test match of the series as Jimmy Anderson and Broad were just looking for swing, rather than trying varieties. If one diagram fails, then why don’t they try other alternatives? To be precise, if you aren’t getting the swing, then you should have tried to stun South Africa’s batsmen with short-pitched deliveries. However, England tried short-pitched deliveries only on rare occasions, which didn’t help either!

Here are my list of fast bowlers who failed to do their job well in the Test series against South Africa:

James Anderson – James Anderson has been England’s most reliable bowler, given that he has the ability to swing the ball on a consistent basis. He is often known as England’s Zaheer Khan. Anderson, like Zaheer Khan, usually guides England’s young bowlers with the likes of Steve Finn and Tim Bresnan. He has been in exhilarating form and claims wickets under any circumstances, on any pitch, and in any weather conditions, while he very rarely bowls a bad spell. He is undoubtedly the best bowler for England at the moment. What this man should have done was – He should have got break-throughs with the new ball, which eventually would have had South Africa on the back-foot. He should have posed enormous number of problems for South Africa’s batsmen, especially their elite players. But that did not happen in the Test matches. Let’s hope he does well in the One Day International matches against this Proteas side.

Stuart Broad – He is one of the finest bowlers for England and has the knack of taking wickets with both the new and old ball. You would have watched his performance in the series against Windies and from that you must have known, what he’s capable of. He’s a proven partnership breaker and he can cause damage to any side if he bowls in the right areas on a consistent basis. For instance, when India toured England for a four match Test series, in the second Test, India were in a commanding position at 270-4. Once Broad got rid of Yuvraj, wickets started to tumble for India. That’s shows what kind of talent Broad is.

However, he hasn’t been in the spotlight even on a single occasion in the series against South Africa. He was trying for swing, not with the aim of taking wickets. As a bowler, you would always look to curb the run-flow, but at the same time looking for wickets is more important. If you take wickets, run-flow will automatically get cut down. But that didn’t happen in the South African series. Alright, the series is over. Atleast he should learn from the mistakes that he had committed in Test matches and need to rectify it immediately for the upcoming ODI series and for future tours.

Tim Bresanan – This man has actually won matches for England single-handedly. Generally, Strauss uses him as a strike bowler. Whenever he needs a wicket, Strauss tosses the ball to Bresnan and he responds to his captain’s call. He relishes the task of trying to get wickets on an unresponsive surface and is an excellent exponent of reverse swing and might be more effective with the old ball than the new-ball. However, this man has been hammered by a few of the best batsmen around and consequently, he hardly gets a chance to play.

Blaming Tim Bresnan for the loss is not fair. If England’s quality bowlers themselves found it difficult to get going, then how can one expect Bresnan to deliver by himself? The English bowlers need to come up with an effective strategy if they are to pose a threat to some of the world’s best batsmen on display.

He should be the most reliable bowler next to Broad and Anderson. If he can deliver in the ODI series, England are not likely to leak runs in the death overs.

None of their main players shined against South Africa. Not only the bowlers, but the batsmen too found it difficult to handle Steyn and Co. With the ODI series on the cards, England’s batting has to revive itself. Some changes have to be made to regain the top spot in the ICC Rankings!