I don't rate that Australian attack even as good as the West Indian attack in the 80s, who were absolutely terrifying. When did Mcgrath and Gillespie scare batsmen to death?

The all conquering Aussie side were full of great bowlers though as we all know.

Where England stand in comparison to both these sides is uninteresting to me. We are bowling well, and winning series'. That is all I need to know.

This England attack is not even anywhere near Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib and Saqlain or Mushy.

Agree with Kash,
I think this England attack can be rightly compared to the current great South African line up though.and I think SA, Australia , Pakistan are equally good attack if not better than this England attack.

"I think SA, Australia , Pakistan are equally good attack if not better than this England attack."

I think that you are slightly demented my friend

I'll be honest I thought this England attack was just a seam friendly condition attack who would only bowl teams out in England, SA, NZ and Oz but they did impress me in UAE and Sri Lanka and this myth that Anderson was just a cold grey day bowler was debunked. If England are top for another 5 years they can be compared.

Dern, Dont you agree with me? why /why not?

This England attack bowled pakistan out for 99 in the first innings of the third test match in the UAE.

This England attack destroyed Pakistan throughout the entire second test match in the UAE and when our batsmen need 140 in the second innings, with TWO days to do it, it was they who failed.

This England attack destroyed Sri Lanka in the second test match in Sri Lanka.

Our batsmen struggled in the Sub C. These England bowlers were superb there, here, and everywhere.

Sorry for boring you with facts as they happened.

Dern, Dont you agree with me? why /why not?

I f you think that Pakistan, Australia & South Africa's (not so much the latter) attacks are at least on par if not better than England's then you are very wrong IMHO.

I dont think this is attack is as good as

harmison
flintoff
jones
hoggard
giles

tbh

It's clearly a very good attack though, and it's probably not far off the 2005 vintage.

What i would say this England team is probably as good as at as any other (current or previous) test team, is their tenacity in the field. Even when the chips are down this team sticks at it, both in terms of bowling and fielding. I think that is a tremendous asset to a test match side.

Also, in terms of strength in depth, I would think that its only been matched (bettered as well to be fair) since the 60s by the great Windies sides.

The australian team had possibly 2 of the best leg spinners of all time, and had quality seemers - mcdermott, reid, alderman, lawson, lee, mcgrath, gilesspie etc, but I'm not aware of them having the depths of reserve at any one time which England currently have.

The 06/07 Ashes attack of McGrath, Warne, Clark and Lee was personally the best I have ever seen playing in the best test side I have witnessed, however I have only been watching cricket since the mid 90s.

The current England attack is not at that level. They are very good but they are on a similar level to the bowling attacks of SA and Pakistan.

I think SA have a good shout for being the best, Steyn is the premier fast bowler on earth, Morne Morkel has been improving for the last few years and has comparable stats to Anderson and Broad. Vernon Philander will be an all time great if he keeps bowling the way he is at the moment and Imran Tahir hasn't made the most impressive start to test cricket but his wealth of experience and fc avg suggest that we haven't seen his best yet.

As for Pakistan, it's hard to compare, obviously they are better than England on a spinning track but England are better on pitches that suit the fast men, hard to pick which is better. I would've said England were a better team but the 3-0 thrashing showed that England's batsman are not as good as I previously thought.

"The australian team had possibly 2 of the best leg spinners of all time, and had quality seemers - mcdermott, reid, alderman, lawson, lee, mcgrath, gilesspie etc, but I'm not aware of them having the depths of reserve at any one time which England currently have."

BIchel, MacGill, Law, Hodge, the Husseys, Di Venuto, Elliott, etc etc. I will admit that the strength in depth of the great Aussies sides of the 90s and 00s was the strength in depth of their batsmen with Australia able to drop players like Hayden, Langer, Mark Waugh and Slats. Many players of that time waited to enter the side for a long time aswell, such as Lehmann and Gilchrist. Many batsmen hung around the edges of the team only getting the odd match and some didn't even debut until 28, 29, 30 like Hussey and Gilchrist. Players like Stuart Law and Brad Hodge never did anything wrong, Hodge averaged over 50.

England's reserves are primarily bowlers whereas Australia had great batting depth.

What a great shame that those days are over dunc

Now it's our turn

I forgot Katich, Love and Symonds. Honourable mention to Phil Jacques who has been dropped after averaging only 47 in his first 11 tests.

what about gregg blewett.

scored 100 in each of his first 3 tests, and only played about another 5 or something.

i said that the other day, how aussies batters in that period remeinded me of england's bowlers now, but that england's batters now had no depth at all.

"What a great shame that those days are over dunc

Now it's our turn "

Great comment mate, keep it up.

Seriously though, let's hope your boys can drag the next set of ashes test matches out a little longer than 3 days at a time.
Nobody likes winning by an innings too often. Gets boring.

I see you are coming to England with the same bowlers you used down under? Oh deary deary me.

Maybe you think we will just play worse or something? Good luck with that.

Yorkshire playing and struggling at the moment. They got this aussie Starc who is totally and utterly useless. Got to get rid of him quickly me thinks. He keeps the crowd entertained though, getting hitting all around the ground.

I read somewhere that he was the future of Australian cricket?

Oh wicket, well done Ryan Sidebottom, show the clown how to bowl.

I read somewhere that he was the future of Australian cricket?
===============

nah, that's phil hughes.

Wumming aside, anyone shed some light on this fella Starc?

He plays for my beloved Yorkshire and is not impressing me very much, so far. Is he any good?

No, England have the best bowling attack at this current time. How someone can judge this England attack to be as good as Australia's, which dominated for years is beyond belief.

I say win another Ashes series at away, which you'll do, then do it again, then do it again. On top of that become a force at home, produce bowling performances like you did in the sub-continent this winter on a consistent basis...then talk.

Bowling and batting at Test level in todays game is nothing compared to how good it used to be 10+ years ago.

Your players are nowhere near as good as you think. You just lost 3-0 to Pakistan, I can't even remember the last time Australia lost an away series to Pakistan.

We are bring the same bowlers, minus the worst bowler I've seen playing for Australia. Our bowling attack is improved massively by not having Johnson constantly leaking runs and pressure at one end.

Our batsmen let us down in the last Ashes, the pitches really flattened out after day 1 in every test except Perth and the English batsmen who were in great form were able to put Australia out of the game early in the match.

"I read somewhere that he was the future of Australian cricket?"

You can read?

It definitely isn't and I don't know who told you that. Maybe they were talking about Pattinson or Cummins?

"Wumming aside, anyone shed some light on this fella Starc?

He plays for my beloved Yorkshire and is not impressing me very much, so far. Is he any good?"
--------------------------------------------------
Well, that's a shame because when he played in that series v India last year, he managed to get Tendulkar out a few times. But, that was after Wasim Akram gave him a few tips, maybe you need to call him?

Having said that about Starc, he may turn out good, remember how god awful Anderson and Broad were when they first started? Luckily for them every other test team managed to regress past them which has given rise to an optical illusion that makes some people think they are almost as good as McGrath et al.

From what I have been seeing, apart from Bangladesh, everybody is getting Tendulkar out these days? I need a much better reference than that to realise what a jewel Yorkshire have taken into our team.