England's (Lack of) Middle Order Batting

Another day at the Test and another failure by the England middle order batting line-up. Not a bad score in the end, but only saved by some heroics by Ambrose and Pietersen.

I haven't checked the statistics but it must be a good few years since the top 6 English batsmen all averaged above 40, so why isn't this previously very successful batting line-up performing?

Many pundits will point to the fact that both Bell and Collingwood have not batted enough recently and also didn't take the opportunity to play for their respective counties in the break between the Test matches.

This lack of form seems to be contagious as Alastair Cook also seemed out of touch this morning.

The fact is that this highly respectable England batting line-up hasn't batted well as a unit for quite some time.  They have relied solely on the one or two individual displays to paper over the cracks of the loss of form.

Both Bell and Collingwood are in desperate need of time batting in the middle.  No amount of nets sessions are going to change that.  Today was their last chance to prove in the Test arena that they deserve their place on merit.

Both really should go back to their counties and play non-stop 'til the South African plane lands later in the summer.

But the problem is also compounded by the fact that Paul Collingwood is the England one-day captain.  Ideally, Collingwood would go back to Durham and make some runs before the Proteas arrive. 

His current loss of form means that he would not merit a place in the side but he is unable to be dropped because he is the captain.

One thing is for certain, if they don't find some form before the South Africans arrive they will struggle as they can bat far better than the Kiwis can, and England's slightly one-paced bowling attack are going to struggle to take ten wickets. The odd individual cameo by Pietersen or Strauss may not be enough then.

Harmison and Hoggard may well feel aggrieved that after a couple of bad performances they were (quite rightly) dropped from the side and never heard of. Peter Moores has not shown the same level of consistency when dropping badly performing batsmen.

Ravi Bopara made 201 in a one-day game on Wednesday. Robert Key never fails to score runs for Kent and Owais Shah has been very patient waiting for his opportunity to get a consistent run in the England team.

The upcoming one-day series against the Kiwis is going to be crucial for Collingwood, Bell et al. to find some form before the big challenge of South Africa.

If they don't, England won't have a top 6 all averaging over 40 for much longer.