The Ashes 2013: Top 5 bowlers to watch out for

The delight of viewing an Ashes series is majorly constituted by the delight of watching quality fast bowling on surfaces that offer assistance. This year will be no different. England have the best bowling attack in the world at the moment.

James Anderson is arguably the best bowler in the world who has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years and is now the master of many arts. He will be given quality support by Stuart Broad and Steven Finn who bowl at the high end of the speed spectrum and extract that bit extra from the pitch in terms of bounce and seam movement.

They will be up against a resilient Australian batting line-up that might not have the stellar batsmen of yesteryears – the likes of Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Gilchrist – but Shane Watson and Michael Clarke will offer more than a fight.

The Australian bowling line-up, on the other hand, is inexperienced but promising. The factor of novelty might actually turn out to be an advantage as James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc have improved as bowlers in the turmoil that Australian cricket has gone through in the last one year.

Adversity often brings out the best from competitive players and the Australians are hardly ever short of that quality. They do lack in the spin department as Graeme Swann is likely to trump Nathan Lyon in that battle. However, if Australia want to pose a serious challenge to the English, that challenge has to emerge from the bowling attack.

Here is a list of five bowlers to watch out for at the Ashes this year:

5. Stuart Broad

The right-handed fast bowler lead England to victory against New Zealand at Lords with a spell during which he exhibited the spark that all England fans will be hoping to see at the Ashes. Broad is largely a bowler who needs to get his rhythm right. The day he manages to do that, he is really good. Otherwise, he can be pedestrian.

He delivers the ball from a good height and when the pitch offers a little assistance he can test the batsman by testing him in the corridor of uncertainty. His career has been marked by frequent crests and troughs but he has become relatively consistent over the last two years claiming 91 wickets at just over 26 and has four five wicket hauls in the past year.

4. Mitchell Starc

The left-handed fast bowler will have a critical job to do in the Australian bowling line-up. He will be given a pat on the back by the captain even if he takes only a wicket per innings as long as that wicket is that of Alastair Cook. The England captain has admitted that he sees threat in him as he has a dodgy record against left-arm fast bowlers who get the ball to move either way.

Mitchell Starc moves the ball away from the left-handed batsman as a stock delivery but he can get the odd one to hold its line and that will be tricky. Cook has been dismissed four-times or more by three left-arm fast bowlers: Zaheer Khan, Mitchell Johnson and Trent Boult. Mitchell Starc has impressed in his fledgling career so far with thirty wickets in his 9 test matches at an average of 34.00.

3. Graeme Swann

If Alastair Cook will be wary of Mitchell Starc, Graeme Swann will be hoping that he gets as many overs as possible. Swann’s record at Trent Bridge, where the first Test is to be played, is not impressive at all as he has only taken three wickets at the venue but that might change if the Australian left-arm seamers create that rough patch for him to work with.

He has been part of two successful Ashes campaigns and has really made the difference to the English bowling line-up with his wicket-taking bowling. He can also create pressure from one end as he does not leak runs (like Nathan Lyon does). He will want to replicate, if not better, his previous Ashes performances. He has taken 29 wickets in the two series’ that he has been a part of.

2. James Pattinson

The swing bowler will be spearheading Australia’s attack. He was rather ordinary when he made his previous visit to England for a few One Day International games constantly drifting to the leg stump. He has developed greater control over his customary swing since and has also developed the ability to reverse swing the old ball. He gets closer to the stumps at the moment of the delivery and uses the crease to good effect.

The huge number of opportunities that he has generously received to bowl in English conditions in the last six months would have helped him acclimatize and his warm-up performances have been upto the mark. He will be targeting Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen in particular with his ability to swing the ball away from the right-handed batsman at astonishingly high speeds.

1. James Anderson

Arguably the best bowler in Test match cricket at the moment. James Anderson will be thirsting for a major Ashes success in home conditions. He is certainly at the peak of his career. His ability to swing the ball both ways without giving the batsman anything like a caution is lethal. His action helps him disguise the delivery remarkably well.

However, what makes him more potent than any other swing bowler is his ability to stay in the game even when the ball has lost its shine and has not begun to reverse. He has delivered a stock delivery that he bowls on a line and length and hitting the prominent seam getting it to move either side from the pitch. It’s a wicket taking deliver in its own right and also helps him contain the flow of runs. He will be Alastair Cook’s most potent weapon at Ashes 2013.