A Captain's Dream

For long I have been a huge fan of England's pace attack. From prior to the Ashes I believed that this was England's strength and would play a key role if they were to win, which they did.

Not only are Hoggy, Harmy, Freddie and Jones seriously talented bowlers who amongst them have a great variety of skills with "nearly all bases covered" as they like to put it, what takes the icing on the cake is the way they are prepared to work together as a team. Pakistan at one point of time had a clearly greater attack - Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib and Saqlain for one, but somehow they never fired as a team. Their differences and clashes were well-known.

Not so with this English attack. Consider this. Hoggy knows that he will be a wicket-taker only in conditions that will help swing, otherwise he is quite happy to do the donkey's work. Harmy knows that he will have to switch between spearhead and workhorse as and when needed. Jones despite serious pace and ability to swing the ball both ways is very happy to come in second change and Freddie is well, just Freddie. There is practically nothing he won't do (and deliver mostly) when the captain asks him something.

The couple of interviews from the English fast bowlers in the last few days drove my attention to this point once again. Here, Harmisson says that all that matters is the team winning, not how many wickets he gets. And I think he is being pretty honest. In fact I have noticed that he not a particularly over-ambitious cricketer individually, but he always gives his heart out for his team. Indeed, his home-sickness on tours and willingness to sacrifice his place in the side is ample indication that he is not particularly bothered about personal landmarks. But the way he struck the Aussies at the start of the Ashes shows that once he puts his mind to the job, he will make sure he makes a damn good effort of it. Here are a few sound bytes:

"As long as the team's doing well and even if I get only one wicket, I'm not bothered,"

"I said that last year in the Ashes, and I got five wickets in the first Test but it meant nothing because we got beat. Then I got 12 wickets in the next four Tests and we won the Ashes. I was chuffed to bits. As long as we win I'm not bothered what wickets I get. If I can go up to Vaughany and say, look I've given you everything I've got, then that suits me."

"I do what the situation demands and what Vaughany requires of me. If it means containing, then I will contain and if it means going at somebody then I'll try and bring up as much energy as I can."

And now, this one from Jones a few days ago:

He said he was happy coming in to bowl after the new ball had been shared by Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison. "To be fair Hoggy and Harmy have done a very good job in the last few years. I don't see any reason to change that. I just come on first or second change. It had worked well for us in the Ashes.

"It [not opening the bowling] doesn't bother me. I like bowling with the new ball, like bowling with the old ball too. I'll do what the skipper tells me."

Indeed, Vaughan is lucky to possess an attack like this.