Just done a very interesting analysis of England bowlers, Sidebottom and Onions thrown in as one was hailed great for a while and the other has done business for England before :
05/06-10/11
vs AUS/IND/SAF/SRI
Tremlett : 21 wkts @ 25.52 (SR 54.33)
Finn : 14 wkts @ 33.14 (SR 46.14)
Onions : 18 wkts @ 37.17 (SR 64.22)
Anderson : 86 wkts @ 38.99 (SR 70.16)
Broad : 44 wkts @ 40.02 (SR 76.95)
Sidebottom : 21 wkts @ 43.48 (SR 97.71)
and the spinners
Swann : 54 wkts @ 36.43 (SR 69.70)
Panesar : 61 wkts @ 41.62 (SR 84.75)
vs BAN/PAK/WIN
Onions : 10 wkts @ 20.00 (SR 27.30)
Sidebottom : 58 wkts @ 21.62 (SR 45.52)
Anderson : 79 wkts @ 21.85 (SR 44.09)
Finn : 32 wkts @ 23.22 (SR 36.94)
Broad : 55 wkts @ 31.42 (SR 60.13)
Tremlett : n/a
and the spinners
Swann : 69 wkts @ 21.14 (SR 46.80)
Panesar : 65 wkts @ 27.57 (SR 59.57)
Very interesting, shows England not only wipe the floor with the easy opposition, and note in the early series from 05/06 in Pakistan and India the bowling attack was much different with Hoggard and Harmison still around, but also play them too often. Broad interestingly enough not only has a very ordinary average against the weaker sides, but also has bowled only 79 balls less at them. Of the bowlers starting the last Test Tremlett has the only average against them which is below 33, I'm sure that may change but it does beg the question why he hasn't come in more often ahead of the likes of Pattinson, Khan, Bresnan and maybe even Shahzad - injuries permitting, but he hasn't been injured all the time surely?!?
Swann has been hailed as a great spinner, but 69 wickets against weaker sides compared to 55 against the better four sides with averages contrasting so heavily suggests that he still is a long way off. But then all this just backs up what I said about England only winning three series against decent opposition since beating Sri Lanka in 2002, England win a lot of matches and series, but not that often when facing the big boys which is when it matters. Perhaps England need to trim the West Indies series, play the kiwis a bit less often and while I'm sure they couldn't get away with playing only one-off Tests against Bangladesh maybe only as often as they absolutely must