The Reverse Sweep

All-round Stuart Broad no longer a Charles Hawtrey figure

As an enforcer, Stuart Broad was about as effective as Charles Hawtrey would have been as a bouncer at a particularly troublesome nightclub.

The penny finally dropped with the player himself when despite favourable bowling conditions his return for the series against a fragile Sri Lankan batting line-up was just eight wickets at 48.75. Indeed, the decision whether to replace him with Tim Bresnan for the subsequent series against India was apparently a borderline one.

Following his lucky reprieve, Broad resolved to pitch it up more and the results have been devastating. Up to the end of 1st innings in Abu Dhabi, he has taken 32 wickets at just 15.15, with an economy rate of 2.33 and a Dale Steyn-esque strike rate of a wicket every 39 balls.

If that wasn’t good enough then his record with the bat since and including the glorious 169 against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010 is 491 runs at 49.10 scored at a brisk strike rate of 75.07.

Broad turned the Trent Bridge Test against India last year with a brilliant counterattacking fifty when England were struggling with the bat and then a hat-trick when India were threatening to take a decisive 1st innings lead. Should England prevail in Abu Dhabi, Broad’s skilful performance with the ball and vital intervention with the bat in securing a lead for England is also likely to prove crucial.

Michael Vaughan reckons that Broad is ideally placed at number eight as he can then play his natural attacking game and he may be right. But Broad is quietly shaping up as a boys own all-rounder in the tradition of a Botham or a Flintoff – a cricketer that can change a match explosively with bat or ball.

Not bad for the man some still refer to as Barbie.

Where next?

England's tale of woe against spin in Asia

Misbah-ul-Haq second only to Bradman

Win a brand new kit for your cricket team

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - England marks out of 10

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Virat Kohli points the way forward for India

There was some rare good news for the bedraggled Indian cricket team today. One of their batsmen finally managed to reach three figures in what has turned out to be the most one-sided Test series since India last played a Test series outside the subcontinent.

The even better news was that the identity of the century maker wasn’t one of their veterans rolling back the years for a final hurrah (or even a long awaited 100th international hundred). Nor was it one of the misfiring opening batsmen whose individual run without a Test hundred now extends to 38 innings for Gautam Gambhir and 25 for Virender Sehwag.

Today saw the maiden Test hundred for Virat Kohli and it was a good one too even if it probably won’t avert yet another heavy defeat for his side.

We’ve been quite impressed with Kohli for some time and his success could (and should) herald a radical new selection policy for India. One that should see long-service awards and pats on the back for VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and dare I say it the Little Master himself and their replacement in the side with Kohli's fellow new breeders namely Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara.

As it has with Kohli it may take some time for the new boys to assimilate to Test cricket, but let’s be frank they cannot do much worse than the incumbents have fared in England and Australia. As an example prior to the Adelaide Test, Gambhir averaged 23.00 in the England and Australia series, Laxman 20.28 and Sehwag 16.09.

It’s time for Indian cricket to move on and Kohli’s hundred may well have pointed the way.

Where next?

Rohit Sharma: The Artist formerly known as Nohit

India: Tigers at home; pussies away

India's batting line-up and Goebbels's big lie

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England's tale of woe against spin in Asia

During the Dubai Test last week, Sky threw up one of its ridiculous stats, which illustrated how contrary to popular opinion the averages of England’s top seven batsmen against spin are all actually higher than their career averages.

However, Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t be fooled by this and nor were we. Taking the candy on offer from the likes of Xavier Doherty in Australia, Amit Mishra last summer and Paul Harris on frankly any pitch is one thing, but doing it against Anil Kumble, Muttiah Muralitharan and now Saeed Ajmal in their own backyards is quite another.

A quick scan of the averages of England’s current top seven away to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka is far more revealing – no we are not including Tests in Bangladesh as facing what is effectively a County 2^nd XI attack tends to inflate the averages of even the worse batsmen. Yes, even Chris Martin.

Surprisingly, it is Matt Prior that leads the way with an average of 46.71 from 6 Tests, followed by Alastair Cook (39.33, 8 Tests, 2 hundreds), Andrew Strauss (37.20, 8 Tests, 3 hundreds), Ian Bell (32.95, 12 Tests, 1 hundred) and bottom of the pile Kevin Pietersen with an average of just 31.54 from 12 Tests with two hundreds. (NB: the Test in Dubai was Trott’s and Morgan’s first away to Pakistan, India or Sri Lanka)

The causes of this serial failure are many with some or all of the following applying to each of England’s batsmen: hard hands, a general lack of foot movement, an inability to take singles and rotate the strike, too much deference and not enough decisiveness, tentativeness and a failure to pick Ajmal.

England’s recent record away to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka is woeful with the defeat in Dubai making it just one win in 18 Tests stretching back to the twin triumphs in Pakistan and Sri Lanka of 2000/01.  It was perhaps hardly surprising therefore that Pakistan’s bowlers took 14 wickets for 184 runs in Dubai on a pretty flat wicket with inconsequential turn and little bounce. This doesn’t bode well for the remainder of this series, nor the ones to Sri Lanka and India later this year.

If any inspiration is required, England should look to four of the leading English batsmen in the subcontinent over the last 30 years. Geoff Boycott leads the way with an average of 58.83 from 8 Tests in India and Pakistan (he never faced Sri Lanka) and is closely followed by David Gower (56.90, 16 Tests), Graeme Thorpe (48.29, 10 Tests) and Paul Collingwood (42.15, 12 Tests).

Three of the four were defined by their grit, bravery and obdurateness, which should be attributes most of England’s batsmen can relate to and hopefully display when they get to the crease later today. Pietersen will hopefully realise that genius as exhibited by Gower can thrive in Asia too. England’s number one ranking depends upon it.

Where next?

Misbah-ul-Haq second only to Bradman

How good are this England cricket team?

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Pakistan's gripping yarn keeps on spinning but fails to enthral Hollywood

We once wrote that Pakistan had forced a dismayed Hollywood to tear up its script after they failed to renact that famous defeat to Australia in Sydney by beating the same opposition at Headingley in 2010.

Those with long memories may recall that this was Salman Butt's first Test as captain after Shahid Afridi had jumped ship after just one match. Of course, Butt's captaincy ended even more unhappily than Afridi's.

Whilst England's sorry defeat in Dubai last week left us like most England fans feeling a bit miserable, it did at least confirm that Pakistan - international cricket's most exciting team - are back where they belong at the top table of international cricket.

It has been an unlikely tale of redemption and one that we felt deserved the wider audience offered through All Out Cricket. So as England hope to redeem themselves in Abu Dhabi, read Pakistan's gripping yarn keeps on spinning and wonder if there are more twists and turns to come in the thriller that is the Pakistan cricket team.

Where next?

A canned Hollywood film about cricket, fixing and a homeless team

Is this the most blatant example of a fixed cricket match ever?

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Misbah-ul-Haq second only to Bradman

Whilst Don Bradman's dismissal for a duck in his last Test innings may have deprived him of finishing his career with a batting average of 100 it failed to dim a much lesser known but perhaps even more formidable statistic.

In 24 matches as captain, Bradman's average actually increased to an even more remarkable 101.51 whilst his side failed to lose even one series - not bad considering that Australia lost Bradman's first two Tests as captain to leave them 2-0 down in the 1936/37 Ashes. This was but small fry to the Don, who hit 270, 212 and finally 169 in the next three Tests so that for the only time in history, a side came back from 2-0 down to win a five Test rubber.

Misbah-ul-Haq's record is not quite that of Bradman's but it is mightily impressive. As well as doing the impossible in creating a unified, solid and dependable Pakistan team since his appointment as captain he has led the way with the bat, averaging 74.07 with one hundred and 11 fifties in 21 innings. After conquering this Everest, perhaps Misbah should co-ordinate efforts to rescue the Euro and avert a nuclear flashpoint in Iran?

Misbah's record ranks second to Bradman of Test captains with a minimum of 15 innings - see full list here. He is certainly ahead of some impressive names with the rest of the top ten featuring Kumar Sangakkara (69.60), Mahela Jayawardene (66.93), Michael Clarke (65.00), Gary Sobers (58.80), Hanif Mohammad (58.73), Graham Gooch (58.72), Brian Lara (57.83) and Alan Melville (57.00).

Of course, Misbah will do well to maintain this record in the current series let alone for the remainder of his reign as captain, but in terms of leading from the front and setting the benchmark for the rest of his side, he is doing a pretty good job.

Calm, composed, cunning, tactically astute and full of runs, Misbah is shaping up as some captain - only Pakistan could have waited until he had reached the ripe old age of 35 before handing such a natural leader of men the reins of power. 

Where next?

Bradman Inspires Australia To Come Back From The Dead In 1936/37

Cricket heroes: Saeed Ajmal

Responsibility and Misbah-ul-Haq

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - Pakistan marks out of 10

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Podcast: Pakistan v England, Australia's dominance over India & much more

We had the pleasure of joining Blaise and Jonathan for this week's One Hand One Bounce podcast on the excellent World Cricket Watch where we had the dubious task of defending England after their pitiful defeat in Dubai last week and talking up the chances ahead of the 2nd Test that starts in Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

To hear whether Andrew Strauss should be worried about his place, Monty Panesar should be picked and how much of a ribbing we got from Blaise (an Aussie, as you ask), give it a listen below.

As well as a post-mortem on England, Blaise, Jonathan and Punter Steve discuss Sri Lanka's comeback
in South Africa and Australia's continued dominance over India. There are also the coveted weekly awards, plus all the latest news and happenings in world cricket.

NB: Please allow a moment while it buffers/loads

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Don’t miss a single episode of the One Hand One Bounce Podcast. Automatically get each new episode by subscribing via iTunes or subscribing to the RSS feed.

Where next?

Top 20 Cricket Blogs: 8 - World Cricket Watch / @worldcricketw

Gideon Haigh speaks about Peter Roebuck

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - England marks out of 10

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - Pakistan marks out of 10

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Win a brand new kit for your cricket team

Does your grassroots cricket team fancy a brand shiny spanking new kit for next season for free? Would you also like a top of the range AEG washing machine for the clubhouse in which to wash the aforementioned new kit too?

Of course you would especially as a fresh sparkling new kit will likely transfer to plenty of runs and bagfuls of wickets. It also means you'll be able to burn your old putrid, grass-stained and ripped kits before the first match of the season. What could be better?

To find out how your team can be one of 40 lucky grassroots cricket teams in the UK to receive an AEG Ultimate Kit & Laundry Package - featuring 12 bespoke cricket kits and a top of the range AEG washing machine, follow the link at the end of the video below featuring Paul Nixon and Michael Vaughan for more information. 

Good luck.

Please note this is a sponsored article.

Where next?

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - England marks out of 10

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - Pakistan marks out of 10

How good are this England cricket team?

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes

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Ricky Ponting proves the doubters (and gladly us) wrong

When we asked a few months ago if Ricky Ponting had lost his punch, despite being English we did so with a heavy heart given that we always had a strange and inexplicable affection for him.

At the time of writing, Ponting had performed poorly at Cape Town in the Test that Australia were infamously dismissed for just 47.

The axe was hovering as Ponting's dismal run reached what appeared to be its climatic moment. He had scored only one hundred in his previous 23 Tests. His average during this run was just 33.78. That slipped further to 26.50 in the 13 matches since that solitary hundred in Hobart against Pakistan and to a dismal 18.84 since the start of the 2010/11 Ashes. In short he looked finished.

When he registered a duck in his next Test innings in Johannesburg, the game looked up. Australia's best batsman since Bradman was surely playing his last Test. His form and technique seemed to have completely eluded him.

But Ponting is nothing if not determined and a resilient 62 in the 2nd innings at The Wanderers helped carry Australia to an improbable victory to draw the series. He had survived the selectors guillotine. Just.

And with India's bowlers proving the most willing of accomplices, Ponting has shoved the words of the critics back down their throats with his 40th and 41st Test hundreds. He has also scored another three fifties since his partial redemption in Johannesburg.

From the depths of despair after that duck at The Wanderers, Ponting now has 561 runs at a tick over 70 and looked something close to his best today in Adelaide.

Never has the old adage of form being temporary and class being permanent held more true than in the case of Ponting, who lest it not be forgotten now has over 13,000 Test runs to his name.

Ponting may have proved our words false, but for once we are glad as such a batting champion deserved an epitaph better than the ones hastily written after the debacle in Cape Town.

Where next?

3rd Test: Australia vs India - Australia marks out of 10

3rd Test: Australia vs India - India marks out of 10

David Warner blasts a 69-ball hundred as euthanasia becomes a serious option for India

India: Tigers at home; pussies away

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An Arctic Tale starring Alastair Campbell, Andy Flower and the England cricket team

We were at an event the other night where Tony Blair's spin doctor Alastair Campbell (a master of the Teesra long before Saeed Ajmal) gave the keynote address and shared with us a list of acronyms that he kept close to hand during his time in government.

Number six or seven (we cannot remember exactly) was HAP, as in get your head above the parapet in times of crisis.

That's exactly what England coach Andy Flower did the day after England's humiliating ten wicket defeat to Pakistan in the 1st Test in Dubai (a location that still doesn't sound quite right for Test cricket).

Flower's honest appraisal was that the nature and extent of the loss would act as a wake-up call to the squad with him reasoning that the long break between England's last Test against India at The Oval in August and this one had left the team fatally under prepared and undercooked.

With the bowlers, we are not sure this really applies. The four man attack stuck to their task well, hardly gave anything away and bowled Pakistan out for a sub-standard total on that pitch.

The problem of course lay with the batsmen who barely exceeded Pakistan's total in their two innings put together. Not content with playing Ajmal as if he was the devil himself - one would have thought that having endured 13 years of Campbell's New Labour England would be able to handle a bit of spin - they seemed to be attempting to outdo each other to see how many times they could be strangled down the legside. The cherry on the top though was Kevin Pietersen's (an absolute liability before he has got off nought) grotesque, hare-brained dismissal in the 2nd innings.

Indeed, Pietersen, Ian Bell and Alastair Cook only totalled 15 runs between them during the match - less than James Anderson on his own and nearly five times less than the number of Graeme Swann managed. That's not undercooked, that's frozen - arctic like frozen.

Where next?

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - England marks out of 10

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - Pakistan marks out of 10

How good are this England cricket team?

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - England marks out of 10

Andrew Strauss - 3: Failed to heed his patience policy with a dismal pull in Ajmal's first over and then amidst some rancour gave a faint legside edge behind second time around. Without a Test hundred in 17 innings and averages just 31 since the start of the tour to South Africa in 2009. Talk of him being under pressure though is ridiculous as evidenced by the fight his sides showed in the field.

Alastair Cook - 1: Perhaps the early introduction of spin in only the sixth over of the match surprised him and forced an injudicious cut off Hafeez's third ball. Caught the legside strangulation bug in the 2nd innings. Just 8 runs from 61 balls in the match is not the returns England has become accustomed to.

Jonathan Trott - 4: Successful audition for the part of golden arm with prize wicket of Younis hid two disappointing dismissals with the bat even if he looked in better touch than any of the other top six batsmen - not that that says much.

Kevin Pietersen - 1: Strangely subdued maybe because he had no crowd to play to. His duck in the 2nd innings was particular ghastly. As one wag noted perhaps KP should have been told the full house had come dressed as blue seats.

Ian Bell - 1: Moved rapidly to the head of the queue for the role of Ajmal's bunny after fatally failing to read the doosra in both innings. 

Eoin Morgan - 3: Instigated a mini-recovery with Prior on the first morning and ably demonstrated his ability against spin before missing an attempted slog sweep to fall leg before. Undone by Rehman's arm ball in the 2nd innings.

Matt Prior - 7: Played an unusually cautious knock - he didn't score his first boundary until his 85th ball and brought up his seventh 50+ plus score in his last 11 innings before falling cheaply second time round. Smart diving catch to remove Shafiq.

Stuart Broad - 7: Brought England back into game with wickets of Taufeeq and Azhar, and bowled to a consistently high standard throughout. Unlike Lord's in 2010, there were no heroics with the bat this time around. 

Graeme Swann - 7: Helped bring some respectability to England's first innings and his 39 second time around meant he was just two runs short of being England's highest run maker in the match. Stuck to his task well with the ball and was eventually rewarded with four wickets. Didn't get much turn and found Pakistan's batsmen less willing accomplices than Ajmal found England's.

Chris Tremlett - 5: Failed to take a wicket in a Test innings for the first time but he will bowl worse than he did here and take three or four wickets. Didn't give much away but the pitch nullified his usual bounce and menace.

James Anderson - 7: Barely wasted a ball and scored more runs than Cook, Bell and Pietersen put together. For once not needed as nightwatchman - England really were that bad. 

Where next?

1st Test: Pakistan vs England - Pakistan marks out of 10

How good are this England cricket team?

England will need to be bold to see off Pakistan

2009: England vs Pakistan - England series marks out of 10

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