Cure for England's Winter Blues?

Saeed Ajmal and Rangana Herath. The names of England's two tormentors over the winter tests earlier this year. The Pakistan off spinner and Sri Lanka slow armer took 43 wickets combined over the 5 tests.

The failure to play the sub continent bowlers in their own backyards regurgitated the question as to whether or not the Number 1 test team in the world can rival the dynasties of the dynamic West Indies in the 80s or the dominating Australia of the 90s, both world beaters, both teams who were expected to white wash their opponents at the height of their dominance.

A winter where England lost 4 out of the 5 tests, were bowled out on every occasion bar the last innings vs Sri Lanka. A winter where England experimented with Samit Patel over Eoin Morgan against Sri Lanka, meaning going into the series England had two orthodox spinners in Swann and Panesar as well as the all rounder ability of Patel, an ability we didn't really see. A winter to forget for the England team and the Barmy Army.

Move forward to May and June and here we are with England leading a series 2-0, with two great performances from arguably the best bowling attack in international cricket, with two centuries from the so called “under fire” captain and a new resurgence which justifies being called the best team in the world. Yes, they are playing an underachieving new West Indies side but it takes something extra to break a partnership of nearly 200, to take wickets where the visiting batsmen have the team frustrated as well as the usually influential England fans.

The difference between now and the winter tests is that England are once again in front of their own support, in their own British weather conditions. They aren't playing on the flat, hard, dry pitches they played on in Dubai and Sri Lanka.

There is talk in the cricketing world that perhaps times have changed, maybe cricket could learn from footballing methods to conquer on foreign soil. In football the greater teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal when playing in the Champions League play different formations and personnel when away from home. An example being Manchester United, at home they traditionally play 4-4-2 but away switch to the more conventional 4-5-1, just the cram and control the midfield. With the same mentality cricket could benefit from this. For instance should England go away from home to India, why not play a team more suited to those conditions, maybe dropping batsmen like Trott or bowlers like Bresnan who are two of the most under rated players in the formidable home England team.

However, this idea would have to be finely balanced, the selectors wouldn't want to be constantly moving batsmen up and down the order. Also what would happen if England play 3 tests at home then 3 away within a short period of time and a player in the home team scores a hundred every time he comes to the crease? Would you have to drop him because he isn't in the away team or play him because he is clearly in good form? Being at the top of your sport is one thing but you want to stay there for as long as possible so perhaps this idea could be something worth thinking about.

Ryan Butler