With the injury sustained by Chris Tremlett ahead of the second test against India, I started wondering about who I would bring in to replace him. This led me to a more general question as to the balance of this England side as it bids to become the best in the world. With no true world class all-rounder avaliable it leads to the age old question - 4 or 5 bowlers?
With 4 bowlers, there are a couple of main issues to my mind, and we don't have to look too far back to come across one of them. In the first test India lost Zaheer Kahn to an injury early in the first innings, leaving them with 2 quicks and a spinner as their recognised bowlers. And with a first day pitch in England very rarely conducive to aiding the spinner, they struggled. Even Dhoni had a bowl to try and make a breakthrough. While I don't think anyone will pick a side in case someone gets injured, I do feel it is a problem with picking 4 bowlers. The other being that when struggling for a wicket, a change can sometimes work wonders. This is especially a problem when you have 3 very similar quicks, such as when Broad Finn and Tremlett all played against Sri Lanka earlier in the summer. This often leads to having part-timers trying to do something a bit magical, which in Englands case means Trott. An extra difficulty this bring is trying to keep all the bowlers fresh, which can be especially problematic at some of the hotter places they play.
With 5 bowlers, the problem is the weakened batting line-up. A tail starting at 7 is quite a long one, so unless the pitch is flat and the top 6 are all in form, this tends to get avoided. It's effectively the reverse of the problem of playing 4 bowlers. In one case you can end up going to the batsmen to get the wickets, while in the other you go to the bowlers to get the runs.
I take the point of view that to win tests, you need to take 20 wickets, so I lean towards the extra bowler. Other people like the batsmen to ground the other team down and then set things up nicely for the bowlers, but I feel this leads to more draws, and I'd rather risk losing for a higher chance of a win. But this means having a long tail, does this weaken the team too much?
For my money, not. While I don't think Broad is a test 7 yet, I think he's definitely not a 9 either, yet that's where he batted today. The combination of Bresnan, Broad and Swann is a competent enough batting unit to be 7,8,9 as their combined test average is almost 85 - and I think Broad's of 28 will rise further - his last two test innings show his ability. Given that the top 6 should average over 250 between them (ideally towards 300, with 50 being a good test average), I think this is enough batting, with extra flexibility in the bowling. While I think Pieteresen is a good second spinner, I don't think Trott is a good enough bowler to be able to fill in, something Collingwood was excellent for.
Another question that arose when I was considering this, is that of a night watchmen. While I'm not opposed to using them, I don't think Anderson is the right style of player for it, much in the same way as I didn't think Hoggard should have done it. I think a night watchmen should be able to protect his wicket in the evening, and then play some strokes the following morning. While Anderson has worked on his batting, I don't think he has enough scoring strokes for it. Years back, I wanted Giles to do the role, and currently I think it is something Broad or Bresnan should be doing, and given Broads current form I would plump for Bresnan. Swann could do it - he definitely has the shots for the following morning - but I don't think his defensive game is quite as good as the others for the evening slot.
Unfortunately, this means dropping one of the batsmen, probably Morgan, and this seems harsh on an ever improving player (this isn't in reaction to a few low scores, it's due to the position he occupies in the line-up. If they keep 4 bowlers he should be given at least until after this series for his form to pick up, and I have no doubts that it will). I would like to see how this balance would work, but I would be against making such a change mid-series. However on flatter pitches in the sub-continent it should be considered.
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