Andy Pakes looks at the emergence of Australia's James Pattinson and compares him to his England-capped brother Darren.
Sam Holloway looks at why test match cricket is not going to become extinct just yet
Manraj Bahra looks at the subtle differences between the forms of cricket and how teams shouldn't look to pick the same players in all forms.
Sports Editor James Tompkinson looks at the continuing problem of corruption within cricket as the cases of three Pakistani cricketers accused of spot fixing comes to an end
As India and England prepare to lock horns later this summer in a clash to decide the number one Test team in the world, much has been made of the various superstars who will be on show.
The much criticised Kevin Pietersen will battle to regain form against the swing master Zaheer Khan and perhaps, tactical selection pending, the left arm spin of rival, Yuvraj Singh. Indeed, when it comes to star power, India are totally unmatched – boasting the likes of MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid and of course, Sachin Tendulkar – among numerous others.
However, various lesser known names will also take part in the much hyped clash of the titans. Neither England, nor India, due to various circumstances have a settled pace bowling attack, and this is not an ideal situation for any team, especially if the two teams happen to be competing to be unofficially/officially/who-really-cares (I do, damn it!) the best test match team in the world.
‘The best laid plans of mice and men [etc]’, and this has been the case for the two teams as they have, as all teams do, tried to form a stable pace bowling line up which could serve them over the next few years. Such is the nature of the beasts that are injuries and losses of form (and in the case of Pakistan, dreaded corruption), creating a stable pace line up is one of the most difficult tasks in ‘long term cricket planning’.
Stuart Broad and Ishant Sharma are two bowlers whose careers have run in vague parallel to each other. Both debuted in Test cricket in 2007 and both average 35.97 with the ball. The first connection excites me greatly, the second much more so – perhaps unhealthily so – perhaps to the level where I need to see someone, but the question is who? But alas, that appears to be an issue for another time. On a simpler level, both are tall, both debuted at a young age and both have a fair bit of speed which marked them above their peers, in selectors and pundits’ eyes as potential future greats.
Despite exclusively sharing the upper plateau of Test cricket, the support staff structure of India and England are rather different. England aim to create the new model army – with chiselled physiques, well oiled bowling actions and some of the top support staff that money and science can muster. India are a lot more informal, the role of head coach has been seldom recognized as important. In India’s recent period of dominance, Dhoni received credit and Kirsten received little – the inmates run the asylum (in a good way).
But all these parallels and divergences appear to fade into insignificance when it comes to Broad and Ishant. Perhaps it is the very nature of cricket that these statistics, these analyses and the actual work done with players matters little once you get out into the middle and it is your body and mind pitted against the opposition’s. There is a chance that both of them may not play, or that one will play and one won’t, despite effectively having been groomed for years for a series of this magnitude.
That would seem to be the cut throat reality of two teams who, for all their differences, want to rule supreme at the top of the test match rankings.
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