Australia exploited England’s long-standing weakness by picking an extra left-arm quick in Behrendorff, who came away with five wickets
Jarrod Kimber26-Jun-2019Australia were not shy in naming the reasons why Jason Behrendorff played against England. Speaking to in Australia, assistant coach Brad Haddin said “Jason just matches up really well against England. It wasn’t a really hard decision to pick him, we had this game in mind for Jason a long way out. And then leading into the game the conditions were perfect. He knew this game was coming, and his preparation was tailored towards that, he just matched up today with the conditions and the English batting line-up.”Behrendorff had played one other game this tournament, but it was only as a replacement for a sore Nathan Coulter-Nile. And Australia used him out of place – as a first-change bowler. Because of this he had little impact. Against England at Lord’s, where the clouds were in his favour, he bowled the first ball and ended with five wickets.But the reason Australia planned to use Behrendorff is that they – like others before them – have noted that England are struggling against left-arm seam. So far in this World Cup, it’s clear, England are struggling against left-arm seam.ESPNcricinfo LtdAnd this isn’t a new thing, though. Over the two years before the World Cup, England have been struggling against left-arm seam for quite some time. Not just in ODI cricket, but in Tests too.ESPNcricinfo LtdOnly in T20 cricket do they do well, but that’s from less than 200 balls of left-arm seam, so it’s far too small a sample size. The economy rates in ODIs are the same, it is just that the batsmen keep being dismissed by left-arm pacers.While it may feel like the entire world is being overrun by left-arm seam, in fact, most teams handle it well. And it is only 9% of all balls in ODI cricket.While England might have a problem with it, they are not the worst. Sri Lanka have the lowest average against left-arm quicks. But they are the same against left and right, there is no reason to target them. England are the best against right-arm seam, and below average against left-arm. They have no other obvious weaknesses. If you have a left-armer on the bench, it is worth using them.The only other team with a differential that is noticeable is the West Indies. It’s interesting that both teams have also struggled to create left-arm seamers at ODI level. Meaning they’ve faced little high quality left-arm pace in the nets as the opposition batsmen.ESPNcricinfo LtdBut while this list shows West Indies and England towards the end, it also has South Africa there, and they have played left-arm seam better than the right-armers of recent times.Even if the overall problem might come from facing less quality left-arm seam, each individual batsman would have their technical issues with it. Eoin Morgan’s will not be the same as Jonny Bairstow’s faults. It’s also something not happening with the tail or middle order, it starts right at the top. Three of England’s top-four struggle against it.ESPNcricinfo LtdBen Stokes, Jos Buttler and Joe Root have no problems, but in the top four, Jason Roy, Eoin Morgan and Jonny Bairstow do. But you can also see it in the lower-order allrounders: Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes and even Adil Rashid have poorer records against it. James Vince is new to the side, and even his record shows problems against it, but these are not problems he’s had when playing domestically in T20s.In a franchise team, a good general manager would make sure you’d never have a team with this kind of weakness running down it, because you’d be a sitting duck. In international sport, there is not much you can do, these are England’s best players, it’s almost bad luck that so many seem to be weak against left-arm pacers.The World Cup format helps England, as there is only a 15-man squad, so South Africa can’t carry Wayne Parnell for one game.And the drop-off of England is so noticeable because they have been incredible against almost all other forms of bowling.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe only other kind of bowling against which England average under 40 is left-arm wristspin. And more than half of those balls are from Kuldeep Yadav, who regardless of his arm and spin, is one of the best bowlers in the world.When Sheldon Cottrell came back into the West Indies side, his left-handedness played a huge part. Cottrell had played ODIs before, but not been that successful, and had been out of the side for over six months when England came to Bridgetown. In that match Cottrell took five wickets and suddenly became the West Indies’ new-ball bowler.Before that game, Cottrell was a long way behind in the pecking order. West Indies had Shannon Gabriel, Oshane Thomas and Kemar Roach. Not to mention the allround seam options of Jason Holder, Carlos Brathwaite, Andre Russell and Keemo Paul. But because it was England, they took the gamble and it paid off. Later in the series Obed McCoy was brought in as injury cover, another left-arm seamer.No other team this World Cup has included a left-armer in their team for England who hadn’t been picked for the prior game. Pakistan, the kings of left-arm seam, even had one left on the bench in Shaheen Afridi. Australia were the first team since the West Indies to make the tactical move, and Jason Behrendorff took five wickets, with Mitchell Starc taking four of his own.ESPNcricinfo LtdEngland knew about all this for a while, their backroom staff have been tracking it. And they also made a very interesting move in having Donovan Miller – who coached the Jamaica Tallawah’s last year – in their coaching set-up. Miller is here in part because of his skill in throwdowns, and because he throws them left-arm.They have tried to prepare the England players as best they can, but this World Cup, left-arm seam is still their weakness.
