Four bowlers or five?

How many bowlers does it take to win a Test series? The question is so fundamental that you would think there would be no argument about it. But the best team in the world isn’t sure what its answer is.

In the Ashes of 2005, Australia played four bowlers every time, as they had throughout their long years of walking all over England. In the first Test, the strategy worked, but then it quickly fell apart. England set out to bully one or two of the four, so that there were always weak links, starting with Mike Kasprowicz and Jason Gillespie. The Aussies saw the problem to the extent of replacing Gillespie with Shaun Tait. But they didn’t see that the real problem was having only four bowlers. The sixth batsman they were so keen to acccommodate, Simon Katich, wasn’t making many runs. To English eyes, it was obvious that they should drop him, along with a dud seamer, and bring in an allrounder, probably Shane Watson, and a second spinner, Stuart MacGill.

It didn’t happen. MacGill, the world’s most gifted understudy, has still not played a Test in England at the age of 35. But as soon as the Aussies got home, they had to pick a team to play the ICC World XI, and sure enough, in came Watson and MacGill. Watson played only a small part – the fifth bowler isn’t needed when the opposition just roll over – but MacGill gobbled up nine wickets. Watson has missed most of the year since with injury, but is now fit and, judging by the recent one-day series in Malaysia, has resumed his upward arc as a hard-hitting batsman and feisty medium-pacer. He is only halfway to the full Flintoff, but that’s enough to make Australia stronger. Not for nothing has Ricky Ponting publicly hinted that he expects Watson to be picked for the Ashes.

If Watson plays, then MacGill can too (assuming he recovers from the injury he picked up at John Buchanan’s boot camp). England, for all their advances under Duncan Fletcher, are still pretty clueless against leg spin. MacGill might well have made all the difference in the last Ashes. The line-up England fans would rather not see at the Gabba on November 23 looks like this: Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Watson, Gilchrist, Warne, Lee, MacGill, McGrath.