Toothless England fail to contain Tiger Tamim

The late wickets of Mohammad Ashraful and Shahadat Hossain may have swung the test back into the home side's favour but that does not hide the fact that England were pitiful at Lord's yesterday.

The bowling attack, Steve Finn apart, was powder puff and toothless, Andrew Strauss was uninspiring as captain, and one can just imagine the smile emanating from Ricky Ponting's face when he woke up in Australia this morning. On this display, the Aussies will hardly be quaking in their boots ahead of the Ashes.

Bangladesh on the other hand were marvellous. Tamim Iqbal, who we have long admired at the Reverse Sweep, hit one of the best test hundreds seen at Lord's and he was ably supported by Imrul Kayes, who finally reached fifty in his 12th test. Compared to their dismal performance in the field on the first day, this was a tenacious and whole-hearted performance from the Tigers.

But England's four men bowling attack were extremely poor. Using the new ball well in Australia is absolutely critical, but in both innings James Anderson and Tim Bresnan have allowed Tamim and Kayes to give their side a flying start. Anderson is just coming back from an injury lay off and was left twiddling his thumbs in the Caribbean, so perhaps can be excused. And at least he bowled better later in both innings. 

Bresnan on the other hand is not a test match opening bowler and never will be. At best he is a third or fourth seamer and on this showing was neither. Unless England opt for five bowlers, Bresnan should not be in the side and even then it is highly debatable he is good enough to bat at seven against the top sides.

For once Swann has not soared for England and even had the chastening experience of being smashed for six twice in an over by Tamim as seventeen came off his first over after lunch. Swann though is allowed a bad day at the office after being England's star man for so long. He will bounce back and should have a good summer on more helpful wickets.

Finn has been the one positive in the bowling department. His height and bounce have caused the Bangladesh batsmen problems and six wickets (so far) in your first home test at the age of 21 is a good performance. Whether he is ready to be part of the XI for the Ashes we shall see. It will be interesting to see how he fares against Pakistan later in the summer.

But the final word should be reserved for Tamim. Earlier this year we compared him to Virender Sehwag and named Tamim as one of the first two graduates from the Sehwag School for Batting. In six tests in 2010, Tamim has now scored 727 runs at 60.58 and in scoring a fifty and a hundred on his first test at Lord's, has surely confirmed that he is Bangladesh's first genuine world class batsman. And lest we not forget, he is only 21 years old. His innings yesterday was an exhilarating adrenalin rush and a joy to watch and it would seem there is plenty more to come. 

Comments

[greyblazer]

I don't think Anderson was bad and a few catches were dropped of his bowling though he looks a bit rusty but Bresnan was crap.

Bresnan did get a few cheap wickets today and that would help him lol.

[The Reverse Sweep]

Anderson came back well with the old ball and second new ball, but he was wasteful with the initial new ball. But compared to Bres he was a world beater!