England get home...eventually

Congratulations go to England after clinching the Wisden series against the West Indies, two up with one to play. This game also saw Michael Vaughan become the most successful English cricket captain of all time in test matches, with his 21st win. It took England until just after lunch on the 5th day to clinch this win, eventually bowling the West Indies out for 394, which incidentally was the games highest innings score, and the second highest 4th innings score in the history of test matches at Old Trafford. The West Indies did have 3 wickets in hand going into lunch on the 5th day, but Steve Harmison picked up a couple, before Monty finished them, leaving Shiv Chanderpaul stranded down the other end with an unbeaten century.

One thing that this battling innnings from the West Indies has proven, is that England cannot afford to carry two out of form bowlers. It was ok when their batting line up was crumbling, but now they are fighting and we lack the necessary fire power. Yes, Harmy does look like he is turning the corner, but Liam Plunkett needs to go back to Durham and just bowl for them and get his confidence back. Hoggard has been included in the squad for the 4th test to replace Plunkett, although that would leave us with a long tail, we would be saved all the extras that Plunkett throws away! Stuart Broad would also have been a great option, but he is injured. All credit to Sidebottom for coming into the side and showing the courage, determination, and consistency required at this level! County cricket is beneficial. Something I have various pundits say, particularly Beefy, is that Plunkett, along with the likes of Anderson and Mahmood, have not bowled enough overs in first class cricket. They are learning their trade in international cricket, which isn't the way to go. Let them have a few seasons of consistent county cricket, and then they will know their action and how they want to bowl much better, and this will then put them in a much better position to serve English cricket.

Several other worries about our side as well. Firstly, Andrew Strauss. Now I am a big fan of Straussy, but he has hardly scored a run in 6 months. Is international cricket the place for him to work his way out of this rough patch. There are also some question marks over his technique, especially getting out lbw early in his innings. True he has got some good deliveries, especially in Australia, but he is out of touch, and surely should go back to Middlesex to get back into form. Who to replace him? Trescothick has to come back to the England fold at some point. My other choice would be maybe bring in Ravi Bopara. He was fantastic at the world cup, and took to international cricket like a duck to water, and there is talk of him playing at 6, especially as Flintoff is not fit, he would offer a similar all round role to Freddie. This would mean Vaughan to open, and Bell to move up to number 3. The other issue is that Ian Bell has a woeful record in his 2nd innings, averaging mid-twenties, when his overall average is mid-forties. Yes his first innings form is good, but he needs to sort out his second innings stuff. Having said that, he deserves credit for digging England out of a hole in the first innings, without which, this would be a much closer test match! But that's all irrelevant now as England have only dropped Plunkett for the returning Hoggard, and Hoggy himself has backed Andrew Strauss to come good in this test match. Hopefully with Harmy bowling on his home ground, he can show us some true fast bowling of old.