So England just failed in their bid to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory but they came mighty close. Credit to the Australian tail for a gutsy performance but it certainly showed up some real and addressable weaknesses in the England game. It goes without saying that, with the win this time, nothing will be done about them but here goes:
1. When your nos 3 and 4 batsmen produce only around 50 runs between them in a test you have got a problem. When it's apparent that part of the problem is faulty technique you have a big problem. On current form neither Vaughan nor Bell should be playing test cricket.
2. England, or at least Vaughan, lacks killer instinct. Yesterday, with Flintoff higher than a kite, it was over an hour before Vaughan gave him a bowl. He should have been given the new ball. He frightens the Australians, Hoggard doesn't. Similarly, it's a bit depressing to watch England bowling to the Australian tail with three and four men on the boundary. Put some pressure on them for goodness sake.
3. Hoggard. What's the point of playing an opening bowler who isn't much of a threat when he's bowling well and is so embarrasingly bad when he isn't that his captain daren't let him bowl at the Australian tail?
Part of the problem of course is that the out of form England players have no way of playing themselves back into form as they simply don't play first class matches anymore and, equally, the county games, are played by weak sides so they don't really say much about anyone's test potential. The selectors are pretty much stuck with what they start the season with and the players know it. There is no real sense among them that they are playing for their place every match, largely because they aren't.
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jen_c_w's comment that the Wheeliebin is a "decent spinner" I consulted the archives and it just shows how low England's expectations of a test spinner have sunk, and how long they have stayed low. Ashley Giles average of 37.28 is comparable with recent England spinners such as Emburey (38.40) and Edmonds (34.18) but it's quite a bit worse than Ray Illingworth (31.20) and Fred Titmuss (32.22) and neither of them was considered deadly in his day. It's probably not fair to include Underwood (25.83) in the comparison for he probably would not have faired nearly so well on today's covered wickets so we have to go back to the 40s and 50s to find England spinners in the Warne/Murali class but we had a pair of them then in Jim Laker (21.24) and Tony Lock (25.58). What would Michael Vaughan not give to have those two later in the week at Old Trafford? It wasn't a fluke either as they were the last in a long line of very effective England spinners including Bosanquet (24.16), Wardle (20.39) and Verity (24.37).
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