Foreign imports paper over cracks in England's foundations

On the eve of yet another Test Series, this time against Bangladesh, there is the unfamiliar aroma of sweet, smelling roses wafting out of the England Cricket Team’s dressing room.

Because although plenty of question marks still surround the squad in all forms of the game, in terms of results, they are on a high.

Recapturing The Ashes; defeating South Africa on their own patch in the limited overs format; a drawn series against one of the world’s best test-playing nations; a draw with Twenty20 World Champions Pakistan and most recently a 3-0 whitewash over the ever-improving Bangladesh side.

Looking at those results more closing; yes, compared to previous Australian teams it wasn’t the strongest, but winning any Ashes series is rare as history tells us.

Leaving South Africa without losing is an achievement that shouldn’t be underestimated either.

The weather did play into our hands a little in the 50-over competition, and our determined tailenders did untwist the knickers of the so-called specialist batsman in the test matches, on more than one occasion.

However, if you’d asked the England Football Team to play Spain in a best-of-four on their home patch and they returned without suffering overall defeat, I reckon most fans would be pretty chuffed.

With regards to Bangladesh, winning on the sub-continent has never been England’s strong point so let’s at least allow them a pat on the back for that.

We haven’t lost to them yet, but The Tigers are on the up; exuberant, talented and young – a cocktail for success.

The batting line-up, which in previous years looked as threatening as the England Rugby Team’s backline, now appears to boast some match winners, especially in the One-Day team.

Craig Kieswetter has the sort of mentality and ability to fill Marcus Trescothick’s empty shoes and Eion Morgan is growing into a class middle order batsman with every shot in the book.

Kevin Pietersen’s form is a worry, nonetheless, when in full tilt, he is the most destructive batsman in world cricket and I have every faith in him returning to his imperious best.

Jonathan Trott didn’t have the best of times in South Africa, however, his entry on to the international scene was sublime; a hundred on debut in an Ashes decider – that is dreamland stuff.

Now if you notice there is a common denominator here, none of these players are a product of the English game.

I have no problem per say with this, although, it does worry me the introduction of so many foreign imports is masking the lack of quality coming through the county system.

When Ravi Bopara was on that wretched scoring run during the Ashes and eventually succumbed his place to Trott, it was a tossup between him and Mark Ramprakash, hardly an embarrassment of riches.

No offence to Ramps, it’s not exactly building for the future.

Moving on to Bangladesh, 29-year-old Michael Carberry now seems to be the next man in line.

Again, fair play to him, because at Hampshire he is rejuvenated. Shane Warne tells us he knew all along (when Warney says something, it is normally proved right).

Carberry aside, you don’t hear the Sky Sports pundits telling us about the long line of English batsman queuing up outside the selector’s door.

Michael Lumb, James Taylor, Andrew Gale and Peter Trego all made the recent Lions’ squad, but realistically are still very much on the international fringes.

It may sound like I’m harping on about the lack of true international standard batsman and ignoring the bowling attack; unfortunately this is the nature of the beast, the men with the willow in their hands always take more flak.

Also Ajmal Shahzad, Steven Finn and James Tredwell have all given a good account of themselves in recent weeks on the bowling front.

It is joked we are becoming the South African B Team, before long we could represent a World XI, which would be no bad thing.

Admittedly, calling on the likes of Morgan and Kieswetter is great, and judging on ability the slots are rightfully theirs, but just imagine the scenario if they had not participated, for whatever reason, in the last eight months of cricket.

One, we might not have won The Ashes; two, the South African experience would not have been such a successful one; three, our 100% record against Bangladesh would not stand.

Having players of this calibre to call on is great, nevertheless, in my opinion, they are masking problems closer to home – this country is currently severely lacking up and coming talent – especially in the batting department.