Four in a row

Well now there can be no denying, England cannot play ordinary spin bowling.

The so called no.1 test playing Nation has now lost 4 test matches in a row mostly due to its inability to play slow bowling. Don't get me wrong, the likes of Herath are good bowlers but not in the same class as Murali or Warne. We can spend all day blaming the conditions, but the truth is the conditions are the same for both sides and if England are incapable of beating these teams, then they do not deserve to be no.1 in the world.

There is one test remaining on this short tour and  certainly hope Strauss, Cook and co. will show they do have the technique to score runs on these wickets.I

More questions than answers for England

It is only three weeks until the first test against Sri Lanka and for England there are more questions than answers following the dismal test series against Pakistan.

England have a very good group of players at their disposal and some very good young players knocking on the door, however the big question mark over England has always been their ability to win on Asian pitches.

A major technical flaw with English batsmen over the years seems to be their ability to cope with the turning ball and the test series against Pakistan only confirmed this. Sri Lanka are currently in a post Murilitharan period and need to rediscover their strengths and weaknesses. Despite this they still managed to keep England at bay for most of last summer other than one session which cost them the series.

The bowling line up seems to be capable of bowling out sides on any pitch providing the ball is pout in the right areas, then is certainly strength in depth with a number of seam bowlers and spinners to chose from, I would say more than I can remember. Maybe a couple of fast bowlers in the mould of a Brett Lee or Dale Steyn would be useful but not necessary on slow Asian pitches.

It is the batting I am concerned with. England should have won the second test against Pakistan only chasing 145 and ending up bowled out for 72. Even if the England batsmen had thrown the bat at everything they would have done better, so perhaps a more aggressive approach is needed sometimes.

The form of Strauss has been worrying recently and Bell, Trott amd Pieterson also need to score some decent runs in this series. I am hoping the UAE series was an aberration and normal service can be resumed. Time for England to show the cricketing world they deserve to be top of the pile.