With the first Ashes test in Cardiff only days away, the time for talking is slowly running out and the time for those 22 players, who will walk out on that first day, to act is approaching. Every series, both groups of selectors have trouble picking the right squad, and then the right team for the match and many players offer different but also sometimes similar skillsets.
A big challenge for the ECB selectors this Ashes series is whether they go with the in-form and exciting Mark Wood or if they back experience and want the reinvigorated Steven Finn in their team.
Wood has been the option for England for the early part of the summer, occupying that third seamer role ever since Steven Finn had his meltdown in action, down-under, 18 months ago. The third seamer spot is something that could be crucial this summer for both teams. Even with the recent and somewhat sudden retirement of Ryan Harris, Australia still boast a strong and deep assemblage of seam, swing and genuine pace bowlers all of whom could potentially do England a lot of damage throughout the series.
Saying this, England may not have the depth Australia have, but they certainly have some quality seamers. Broad and Anderson have 690 test wickets between them, more than Mitchell Johnson, Starc, Peter Siddle and Josh Hazlewood, the four main Aussie seamers, have between them (573).
Wood is exciting, young and, most importantly of all, quick. He has shown that he can dominate batsman when playing for Durham, coming onto the scene when they won back-to-back county championships in 2008 and 2009 and also that he can adjust his game to pitches and conditions easily. Making his test debut at Lord’s in late May, Wood picked up match figures of 4-130, which included the scalp of Brendon McCullum, his first test wicket. He not only impressed with his initiative thinking, sometimes coming around the wicket to test batsman out more, but also at the pace he was bowling, regularly touching the high 80’s and even low 90’s.
The other option for England would be Steven Finn, the Middlesex pace man who recently led the attack in the one-day series with New Zealand looked to be back to near enough his best, in a series dominated by the batsman and their explosive hitting. Being 6″7, it’s no surprise Finn gets up to the high 80’s/low 90’s as well, but his height gives him more than pace. Being so tall, it’s easier for Finn to utilise bounce more and to get the ball to really come of the pitch a lot harder than Wood could.
The only issue with Finn is that once upon a time he was set to be in the England team for a long while, until he had that breakdown on technique in Australia and was eventually sent home. This may have not been seen to damage his confidence, but with all the talk of Australia coming over and preparing to give plenty of sledging to the England squad, this could make Finn a prime target. The question would then be: how would he be able to cope? Would he suffer another breakdown in the future?
England already have Broad to fill that ‘enforcer’ role of banging the ball in hard and trying to rough up batsman so it makes that somewhat unique skill of Finn’s not so unique any more. Wood does swing the ball, similarly to Anderson, and can bowl at up to 90mph, similarly to Broad. This does put him in good stead for the future, but is he experienced enough now for an Ashes series? With only two test caps is Wood ready to deal with one of the sports fiercest and oldest rivalries?
Either way, England have a pair of high quality and, equally as importantly, young seamers who can operate at the highest level. They both bring something new to the table and by picking either of them England will gain something as a team. Currently, only Wood is in the squad for the Cardiff test, so it’s likely England will start with him, but as the summer rolls on Finn might well be required and it’s likely that he could feature at some point in the series.
