Bowling options could swing it England's way

Andrew Flintoff's return will bolster England's bowling attack © Getty Images

What does a team do when they start a tour fretting about their fast-bowling options and win a Test series largely because of them? Fret about them all over again. India have gone through half their English tour celebrating their swing bowlers but, ironically, need to start worrying about them again.

England, as one would expect from a home side, have followed the more logical route. They started the Tests with a fresh attack, saw their rookies grow in confidence over the games and are now in a position to explore options. Despite Ryan Sidebottom's absence for the first game, England still have four promising options to choose from. India, on the other hand, have effectively two and a half.

James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Stuart Broad have promised much at various points over the last month. Dimitri Mascarenhas, the local lad, a medium-pacer who wobbles it around, provides an additional option. Andrew Flintoff's return bolsters the attack even further. Besides there's Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara, capable of nipping it around, and Ian Bell, who can be a useful dobbler.

In comparison, India seem emaciated. Zaheer Khan and RP Singh have steamed in for 2159 legal deliveries on this tour so far, leaving them quite spent. Munaf Patel has done little to suggest he's back to full fitness, looking completely out of place in last two matches. Ajit Agarkar is the fresh one but such is his unpredictability that nobody knows which Agarkar is going to land up. Sourav Ganguly can be trusted to chip in but his creaky back needs to hold. When Rahul Dravid, at the start of a seven-match series, says, "We don't have many options", you know he really, desperately doesn't.

"Munaf's coming back from injury, he'll probably take a little more time," said Dravid virtually ruling him out of the opening clash. "It wasn't easy bowling against the wind on a flat pitch at Northampton. His first spell was against the wind and it wasn't easy. But he came and did really well in the second spell. He's probably been our most economical one-day bowler over the last year. Him being back to form and fitness will be important for us in the long run. We'll have to give him a bit more time to get there.

"Ajit has a lot more experience. He's been playing only one-day cricket for a year-and-a-half now. RP [Singh] hasn't played a lot of cricket before the last three months. He's keen to establish himself in the one-day game. There's obviously pressure on the quick bowlers but we don't have that many options as well."

The Test series was decided by swing and, with three games under lights, the trend might just continue. Day-night games in this country tend to favour faster bowlers, especially in the extended twilight period at the start of the second innings. The floodlights don't have the same intensity as grounds in India and batsmen have traditionally struggled to spot the ball at the start of the run-chase.

England's captain Paul Collingwood put in another bizarre dimension. Either he was hungover, after Durham's first major one-day series triumph, or had investigated the fluid dynamics accompanying the movements of a white Kookaburra cricket ball, but he left his audience slightly bemused.

"Hopefully the ball won't swing as much. During the Tests what they did do well was swing the ball both ways. The white ball swings generally in one direction. Obviously they're skilful bowlers and have played a lot of one-day cricket together. But hopefully it doesn't swing both ways."

Why the white ball won't swing both ways, we'll need to wait and find out. Collingwood either has some inside dope about recent developments in ball technology or was talking utter tosh. Either way he at least has more options.