England Need An Olympic Effort

Gareme Swann "kick up the arse"

Graeme Swann described it as "the old kick up the arse", calling his team's loss to South Africa at The Oval last week as a public humiliation. James Anderson thinks the bowlers have to "bowl with more intent and aggression". Ian Bell has said "We're not going to say we were outplayed - we're going to discuss why." Andy Flower spoke like a man whose job was dependant on results "I wouldn't describe our results as being dismal," he said. "I think you have to look a little deeper than that."

Interesting reaction from those inside the English camp, with only Swann being typically honest and potently accurate. When you lose by an innings on home soil and your bowlers take only two wickets in 189 overs, its obvious, even to my wife, that yes Jimmy, more intent and aggression is needed. Ian Bell has adapted the modern corporate case management style which does much to ease guilt but little to improve performance, whilst Andy Flower's insistence on a deeper examination is certainly right. Its not been a dismal year for England, its been a disastrous year. The number one team in world cricket has only beaten the number eight team among the three Test series they have played and thanks to the Oval annihilation, is already well out of contention for the fourth.

Worse, their bowling attack, led by an interchangeable group of which Anderson clearly leads, was humbled in a manner rarely seen in the modern game. Apart from the first three overs of those 189, the Englishmen never looked like getting a wicket as Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis stacked the Poms in a funeral pyre and danced on the ashes. The other three batsmen in the line up were on raw meat in the dressing sheds, screaming "let me at 'em" whilst the carnage continued for days in the centre.

Strauss "go away and steel yourselves"

Andrew Strauss has had none of it. He's not a man prone to prancing about and Hanrahaning the past as though it is the future. He is a man of mental steel who uses empathy and compassion and understanding as a means to an end. He is among the best man managers in sport, let alone cricket. "Everyone needs to go away and think about what they did in this Test match and steel themselves as much as possible to come and play some good hard cricket because that is what it will take next week. We have two games and we have to win them both to win the series. They are in front of us. I have huge confidence in our players to do that but we need to use the time this week wisely to put the game to bed and learn lessons from it, recharge batteries and make sure we are ready to go next week."

Have they? Can they? With so much initiative handed to South Africa, is there a way back? In all honesty, its hard to imagine England being able to win the remaining two matches, if for no other reason than the weather. Its been a dreadfully wet summer and the forecasts for the next few weeks don't look any better, despite the Royal call for the meteorologists to lift their game whilst those other sportsmen run and jump and swim and ride and hit and kick. England will need all ten days to beat South Africa but even though one win and no more losses would be enough, that First Test caning will test the resolve of the English bowlers. The cricket world finally sees them under pressure because it has been the English batsmen who have failed so far this year.

South Africa have no choices to make and will field an unchanged line up at Headingly. Oddly, some of their batsmen are still underdone owing to limited opportunities. Jacques Rudolph could move up to open if Smith wanted a fourth seamer with Alviro Petersen dropping out. The experiment to give AB deVilliers the gloves hasn't backfired yet but it will.

England have had to make one change and will likely make another voluntarily. Ravi Bopara, having just won his Test place back, would have played at Headingley but has omitted himself for personal reasons. The best the media has been able to glean has been "trouble at home". Like the Brad Haddin withdrawal from the West Indies tour, it would appear that if the media knows the reasons, they are choosing to show an uncharacteristic restraint in not reporting it. The cynic in me believes they don't know.

James Taylor - just 22 and
already 13 first hundreds

In his place comes an overdue chance for James Taylor, a young man who has seen fire and rain this season with runs and weather interruptions. He has done more than could have been expected of a future England player in the past few seasons, scoring heavily for Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire and every time he leads the English Lions. At only 22 he already has 5000 first class runs. His debut may have more implications than the opportunity it offers for him to nail down the English No 6 position which has been occupied by Eion Morgan, Johnny Bairstow and Bopara this year alone. Taylor is also an imaginative captain and with Strauss in the late afternoon of his captaincy, England could do much worse. He's only a little bloke - the shortest man playing first class cricket in England - so Ian Bell will finally have someone to tower over but it would be a mistake for Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to think he has a problem with the short ball. Little blokes are usually good hookers because fast bowlers are dumb enough to give them plenty of practice.

England need to drop Tim Bresnan. Now that his luck hoodoo has been exploded as myth, Steve Finn needs to come into the side. Bresnan looked like canon fodder in the First Test and although Finn will be expensive, he's quick and will serve it back to the South African batting line up.

The men Strauss needs to get more from include Pietersen, Swann and Broad. Kevin Pietersen was in his own world at The Oval, completely out thought by Morkel in the second innings. He still seems preoccupied with his status in English cricket and his battle to play when and if he wants to in the forms of the game he prefers and he batted without much concern for the game situation. Swann bowled tightly but that's not what he's there for and he needs to get the scent of the battle back in his nostrils and challenge batsmen. There was too much about him that was playing safe in the first Test. Stuart Broad was indifferent at The Oval. His efforts with bat and ball were as fey as a teenage girl's friendships. If England are to win a Test in the late summer, he must do the grunt work and shake the likes of Kallis up in between bowling the impeccable line and testing length that have got him so many of his Test wickets. The question mark comes over his ability to withstand attack.

England have the right captain and they have the batsmen to score enough runs. It really boils down to whether their bowling attack is as good as it thinks it is. The suspicion is, that finally facing a strong opposition, they don't have any answers.

We'll find out at Headingley ... or it will be too late.