A Bowler Short

The drawn test match in Barbados did not produce the most entertaining cricket and it was hard work at times to watch it. The wickets on this tour have not been particularly helpful to the bowlers although England made life harder by selecting an unfit bowler in Sidebottom and dropping Steve Harmison.

Leaving out Harmison because of his lack of wickets is one thing but replacing him with a bowler who has an injury prior to the match is too ridiculous for words. Sidebottom constantly seems to suffer one injury after another but even if he was fit he does not offer much away from English conditions. In addition, he does not take wickets against the better sides in test cricket.

When Flintoff is not available the balance of the side is adversely affected. The four bowler experiment has been used before without much success so it was never going to work in this test. The occasional bowling of batsmen like Collingwood and Bopara may be useful in the domestic limited overs game but is not effective in test cricket.

England has been up against it after the damage done in the shambolic 1st test surrender. All the West Indies have to do is avoid defeat for the remainder of the series and they are home and dry. There is rumour that the Trinidad wicket will offer more assistance to the bowlers but if England once again go with four then a positive result will be more difficult.

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