It’s the ‘ins and outs’ of life in the fast lane...

The editor of Cricket Statistician analyses recent events

Have we got too many fast bowlers? In England’s golden days of the 1950s they had Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Frank Tyson and Peter Loader, all genuinely quick, all capable of Test wickets, though the period didn’t last long. And in the 1950s you had Trevor Bailey as third seamer, so never played three fast bowlers together. This, of course, followed the immediate post-war period when England had no fast bowlers at all.

Now we have two teams to think about, the ODI team for the Champions Trophy and then the Test team for slightly later in the summer, and our fast bowlers, once rough carthorses who fired away all year round, are now apparently thoroughbreds – fragile creatures prone to stress fractures and shin splints. Once we had ‘Boxer’, now it’s ‘My Little Pony’.

So now for the Champions Trophy we have David Willey, Mark Wood, Jake Ball, Chris Woakes, Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett. We could have had Stuart Broad (but the fear is of burnout). No room then for Steven Finn or for any of the young contenders, for Toby Roland-Jones or Tom Curran. All of which gives the impression that there is really not all that much to choose between them, with the ones most likely to do something special in one game probably Woakes and Stokes.

If we look at last winter’s games (three each against Bangladesh, India and the West Indies), Plunkett took ten wickets in three in the West Indies, Woakes has taken 15 in the last nine. Ball 12 in six. Wood, of course, has missed all these games, but essentially all the others have had good and bad days. We might also bear in mind the winter’s results were not too impressive for a team bigging itself up as much as England is at the moment.

We could have had enough ODIs by the end of this summer, mind. Two against Ireland, three against South Africa, the Champions Trophy and five against the West Indies. Even Afghanistan get a game at Lord’s, but against the MCC.

Come the Test matches, Anderson and Broad will undoubtedly return to lead the England attack, assuming neither of them has done so little bowling over the last few months that they have forgotten how. Neither did very well in India, where England were outbowled by the Indian seamers, but they both are (or have been) bowlers who have taken wickets in Test matches, not just odd wickets but match-winning performances. Of England’s seven winter Tests, Broad played in four and Anderson three.

Although Ben Stokes is a certainty for the Tests, the selectors may want one or two more quicks. The choice here seems to be between Plunkett, Finn and Woakes. Subject, of course, to injuries…

Part of the reason for so many quicks, though, is the lack of slow bowlers. In recent times we have Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson and Joe Root. And for the Champions Trophy we have Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali. Ali, the perennial uncertainty, took two wickets in nine matches over the winter, and though Rashid was successful, somehow we don’t want to play him in England. Perhaps the fast bowling questions are easier after all.