Sidebottom for Onions seems strange

Graeme Onions hasn't bowled that well on this tour as his average of 45 demonsrates, but it was still a massive surprise that Ryan Sidebottom was preferred for the vital 4th Test in South Africa.

At the start of the series I would have played 6 batsmen rather than 7, leaving Bell out, and played Sidebottom and Onions, but that time has passed and Ian Bell has had a good series. Onions hasn't blown the South Africans away but it must have been a very marginal 50/50 call between Sidebottom and Onions. So for me, team unity and consistency of selection should have won the day, just as it does with batsmen.

That still applies even if Sidebottom takes loads....England certainly need him to!!

New(ish) ICC rankings

Some interesting things to note from the latest ICC rankings:
- The top 3 ODI bowlers are all spinners
- 6 of the top 10 ODI bowlers are spinners
- No Australia or South African batsmen make the top 5 Test batsmen
- The top 2 Test batsmen are both Sri Lankan
- The 5th ranked Test bowler in the world is the forgotten Australian Stuart Clark

From an England point of view James Anderson and Graeme Swann scrape into the top 10 Test bowlers at 9 and 10, and with Stuart Broad at 13 and Graham Onions moving up from nowhere after only a few games, England's Test bowling suddenly seems to look like a decent unit.

Now we just need to get some batsmen into these lists and we could compete! Pietersen and Strauss aren't far off....

Caddick's batting

You've probably noticed the news that Andy Caddick is retiring at the end of the season. He ended up with a Test bowling average under 30 and that's not to be sniffed at so he can look back on a top bowling career. But I happened to also notice his Test batting average of 10 too - my memory was that be batted at 8 or 9 which his stats support.

It's amazing how much more the bowlers are now expected to contribute with the bat - Anderson who bats 10 for England averages 15. (Onions hasn't played enough to have a realistic average to date, but for what it's worth, it's 17.)

Bowling to tailenders

I think it's obvious to say there has been a momentum shift. Australia fought back towards the end of the first day and then at the beginning of the morning on Friday but then let it slip. Anderson and Onions did enough to prevent a successful morning for the Australians, post a total above the pyschological 400 and keep the Australian opening batsmen on the field for longer than expected.

Whilst the England tailenders did well, I couldn't understand the field placings used by Ponting. Why have a deep point/sweeper on the off-side boundary for a number 10 and 11? All it did was allowed the pairing to build some confidence and remove one catcher from the ring.

And with this confidence the bowlers took the game to the Australians and we are where we are as a result.

Now the question is, how will England bowl to the Australian tailenders?