Pakistan v England second Test, day three: wagging tail the key to becoming ... - Telegraph.co.uk

So here is a fundamental reason why England have steadily risen to No?1 in the world Test rankings over the last dozen years.

After the Illingworth era, their lower-order batting went downhill until it disappeared in a ditch in 1999, when Andy Caddick, Phil Tufnell, Alan Mullally and Ed Giddins were the tail which England's selectors sapiently assembled. Poor lower-order batting, poor morale, and bottom in every estimation.

Duncan Fletcher reversed the trend, slotting Ashley Giles in at No?8 to make determined thirties. Andy Flower has extended it to the point where statistics show England's middle order to be almost twice as effective as any other country's over the last year.

This is a slightly deceptive statistic: Anderson has often been used as a nightwatchman, which has forced Ian Bell down to No?6 and enhanced England's figures. Still, the point remains: England's lower order packs a punch, and often it is a quick one-two.

Instead of Giles nudging the ball around at eight, England now have Broad, batting with the confidence of an all-rounder, going aerial when the ball is pitched up, whacking away at a rate of 90 runs per 100 balls and averaging 40 since he was injured out of the Ashes: this is serious welly.

As Broad has been averaging 22 with the ball at the same time in Tests (even though he aimed at the batsmen not the stumps during the home series against Sri Lanka last summer), he has been performing on a par with the best all-rounders in history, as nobody yet has averaged twice as much with the bat as the ball.

Of all-rounders who have scored 1,000 runs and taken 100 wickets in Test cricket, the ones with the biggest differential over their career have been Jacques Kallis (57 with the bat, 32 with the ball), Garfield Sobers (57-34), Tony Greig (40-32), Imran Khan (37-22) and Keith Miller (36-22).

More immediately, Pakistan's lower-order batting has been the least productive among Test countries since the start of January last year. They would have been better off if, instead of Junaid Khan who dropped a sitter and has yet to contribute a run or a wicket, they had Mohammad Amir bowling left-arm swing and batting at No?8 – rather than doing time in Portland Prison in Dorset.

And if Broad and his fellow bowlers run through Pakistan's lower order with the second new ball today, England's upper-order batsmen might be able to knock off the runs themselves, without the lower order to bail them out.