Many people have wondered where England’s recent dominance of cricket at Test Match level has had its genisis. One only needs to look at this fact for an answer: in the last test match played at Chester-le-Street Englands bowling attack was Anderson, Broad, Bresnan, Onions and Swann. For this test match their bowling attack will be made up of four of those very same five bowlers. Whilst there have been some minor tweaks to the English bowling line up in the intervening period it is apposite to note that there has been remarkable consistency in the selections of England’s bowlers in the last 4 years. Steve Finn and Monty Panesar aside, players selected outside of the five “in play” for the fourth test match (Tremlett, Tredwell, Patel, Shahzad and Sidebottom) have been selected as injury cover on basically all occasions.

If you need further convincing of England’s consistency in this area consider this: England have played in 53 test matches inclusive of the last time they played in Durham on 14 May 2009 and since that time Messrs Swann, Anderson and Broad have played in 49, 49 and 44 of those test matches respectively.

Conversely, in the same period the Australian selectors have deigned to select the bowlers from the following phalanx of players:
PM Siddle
MG Johnson
BW Hilfenhaus
NM Lyon
RJ Harris
NM Hauritz
SR Watson
DE Bollinger
JL Pattinson
MA Starc
JM Bird
SPD Smith
PJ Cummins
XJ Doherty
GJ Maxwell
TA Copeland
SR Clark
MA Beer
AC Agar
PR George
MC Henriques
JW Hastings
CJ McKay

During the same period in question Australia has played in 49 test matches. At the top regarding number of test matches played during the period is Siddle with 37. Thereafter, players no longer in the mix for test selection in the form of Messrs Johnson and Hilfenhaus are the next most used during this period. It has been argued that Australia’s bowling attack has been in a state of flux since the retirements of McGrath and Warne and these numbers do not lie. What these numbers also suggest though is that Australia has either suffered an injury epidemic during the same period OR simply has not had the confidence in its own bowlers to stick with them after a poor performance.

It is amazing that after a 51 month hiatus in test matches at Chester-le-Street that the same bowlers will be used by England as the last time a game was played there. It is not amazing that England have retained the Ashes and have been dominant during that same period: they have been consistent in their selections and their players have responded. That fact is a sad indictment on either the efforts of the Australian NSP OR their medical staff.