'We have the firepower to take 20 wickets this time'

In the last 14 series, England have failed to win their opening Test. Stephen Brenkley asks three key players – Cook, Anderson and Swann – how they hope to stop the rot

(TOM HEVEZI/AP)

OF all the statistics and figures that mark England's steady decline it is the one that stands out. It may even define their gradual slide down the Test rankings.

In four years and 14 series, they have failed to win the opening Test of a rubber. The opposition has embraced the great, Australia, and the ordinary, New Zealand, but whoever it was, at home and away, in whatever hemisphere and whatever time of the year, England have hit the ground hobbling.

Andy Flower, the team's new coach, is painfully aware of it and when it happened the last time in the West Indies in February he was quite explicit that it was no accident. He was only in an acting capacity then but he recognised that something, somewhere was going wrong and it needed addressing. "There has to be a reason for it, whether it is the way we prepare or what we do between series," he said.

The topic was raised when the team gathered on Sunday night and perhaps, as Alastair Cook, the opening batsman, avers the fact that they have been made so aware of it may help to redress the balance.

"We're not quite sure why it hasn't happened but I think if you can become aware of it you can do something about it," he says. "Some of the statistics are slightly misleading. India were nine down when it rained, it rained a lot against New Zealand, we made South Africa follow on.

"So they might be warped but in the end the figures say what they say for a reason. It can make a huge amount of difference starting the series with a win. It's an area we're desperate to improve.

"Lord's, where we play so many first Tests, has something to do with it. It's a very hard place to win with the wickets staying the same, if not getting better and better as the game goes on. Away, I'm at a loss to explain it. The only way you do it is playing better cricket."

England last won the opening Test against Bangladesh in 2005, which hardly counts. But they had also done it in the three series preceding that and had not actually lost the opening game since 2002 (Australia, naturally). The rot for the present run set in against Australia in 2005 when they were hammered by Australia at Lord's. Of course, they came back from that to regain the Ashes but the start of the series has been a picture of woe since then. That applies as much to the ones that got away as much as the one they were never in.

For instance, at Lord's in 2007, the tourists were nine down in the second innings and headed for certain defeat (England were also denied an lbw verdict which looked bang to rights) when it rained. Thus reprieved, India went on to win the series.

If recognising a fault means that you are three quarters of the way to remedying it, England should knock the beleaguered West Indies from pillar to post this week, no matter the condition of the Lord's surface.

"We think if we can continue the way we played towards the end of the West Indies series, certainly bat the way we did, pile on the runs, bat well and bat once, we feel we have the firepower to be able to get the 20 wickets," says Jimmy Anderson.

Much of that firepower will be employed by Anderson. Almost perverse though it sounds considering England lost and he took only nine wickets, he looked an authentic leader of an attack by the end of the recent West Indies tour. In truth, England have lacked that since Stephen Harmison began his demise and Matthew Hoggard was deemed to be over the hill.

"I've got some more responsibility now," Anderson continues. "For the last couple of summers I have felt a little like that, certainly when Fred Flintoff hasn't been around and with Stuart Broad just coming through. I felt it actually helped me throughout the winter and feel like I performed better.

"I would say I am a lot more confident and a lot more aware of my own ability and what I can actually do. In previous years if something has been going wrong I would worry about it and think it's my action or something. I'm much more aware of what's going wrong with my body or my action."

If there are areas of preparation and approach which have not helped nor frequently has the surface at Lord's where England play so many of their opening Tests. Designed to last five days, which pleases the TV rights holders no end, it looks sometimes as if it would last 10. As Cook mentioned it not only stays the same as the match wears on, it gets better which is not how Test cricket pitches are supposed to behave.

What England have to work out by tomorrow morning is the best way of skinning this particular cat. Sensibly, they are using five bowlers and by tomorrow morning they must work out if two of them will be spinners. It was so cold and the air so moist yesterday that the odds are decidedly against it but England would not have included both Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar in their 12 if they were not keen on the notion, even in May.

As Swann says: "I wasn't surprised they have chosen two spinners here. We did it in the West Indies and I loved the last Test match there, bowling in tandem with Monty. I just think the game moves a lot better. The reality is that in England we don't get much of a chance to play two spin bowlers."

Swann will doubtless get his wish but the probability is that England will play him as the sole spinner with two debutant seam bowlers from the north, Tim Bresnan, the Yorkshire swing bowler, and Graham Onions, a slightly faster version from Durham. A bogey is waiting to be laid.