Swann sizes up spin-twin summer

There was a time, not so long ago, when spin bowlers were utterly surplus to requirements during the early season Test match at Lord's. The legspinner, Chris Schofield, made his debut during the Zimbabwe Test in 2000 - at the time the earliest Test ever played in England - and couldn't get a bowl as Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick sealed a crushing innings victory.

The trend continued in later seasons, as Gareth Batty and Ashley Giles were also left to graze in the outfield during seam-dominated contests. Their selection seemed superfluous at best and a misappropriation of resources at worst, as England exploited their home advantage ruthlessly with five innings victories in seven contests, including a thumping innings-and-261-run margin when Bangladesh came to town in 2005.

But then the spell was broken and the life in the surface drained away (possibly via the £1.5million drainage system that has made Lord's into one of the most reliable all-weather surfaces in the world, but also one of the thirstiest). Ever since that Bangladesh result, England have failed to force victory in any one of their seven Tests at Lord's. In July 2005, they lost to Australia by 239 runs, before drawing a blank in six consecutive games against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies, India, New Zealand and South Africa.

"There've been a number of reasons," said James Anderson, who - incredibly - is one of only two players in the match, along with the captain, Andrew Strauss, who has experienced the winning feeling in St John's Wood. "In the first Test against India we had them nine-down and it rained, which didn't help. But it's something we're looking to put right."

Having named a remarkably streamline 12-man squad, the permutations available to England are few and far between as they seek that elusive victory. But, with another belter in prospect and the weather set fair for the rest of the week, it is not impossible that England will buck all received wisdom about early-season English pitches, and select two spinners for a match which begins on May 6, the earliest-ever start to a Test match in the country.

"It's not beyond the realms of possibility," said Graeme Swann, who is expected to line up for the contest come what may, having established himself as England's senior spinner over the course of an eventful winter. Whether he is joined by Monty Panesar depends on whether England are willing to make a gamble of arguably equal proportions, and select two debutant seamers, in Graham Onions and Tim Bresnan, for the first time since Mark Ilott and Martin McCague lined up at Nottingham in the 1993 Ashes.

"In England spin doesn't tend to play as big a factor as overseas, but I still think it's very important," Swann said. "You know you're not going to get the same chance as overseas, and get given the ball and bowl unchanged all day, but it tends to be the partnership breaker and pick up key wickets."

Swann and Panesar certainly did their utmost to justify their retention as a spin pairing during England's last Test match, against West Indies at Trinidad in March. Left with 66 overs in which to claim ten second-innings wickets after a final-day declaration, the pair climbed all over a timid batting order, taking a combined haul of 5 for 47 in 40.5 overs as West Indies clung on desperately to their decisive series lead.

"The Tests in the West Indies didn't really suit spin or seam," said Swann. "We tried a couple of different methods to get 20 wickets, and didn't quite get there. But personally I loved that last Test match, bowling in tandem with Monty. I've always gone on record to say that I think cricket is better when there are two spinners bowling. It makes the game move a lot better, and it's more exciting."

Swann and Panesar, once county colleagues at Northamptonshire, have occasionally bowled together in the Championship to good effect. "We'd have done ourselves no harm had we managed to win that Test, but I was excited by the brand of cricket we were playing at the end of it," said Swann. "As a spin bowler I was in the thick of it and kept getting thrown the ball which is a nice feeling. You don't want to bowl five overs and go and stand at third man because your captain thinks you are a bit of a tosser."

In fact England's captain, Andrew Strauss, gives the impression of being a leader firmly in tune with his spinners. "If you get the chance to set your own fields and bowl where you want, then it's the thumbs up and Straussy is like that," said Swann. "In the West Indies he seemed to keep throwing me the ball, although I don't know whether that was because the seam bowlers had had enough."

West Indies, for their part, have the lanky Sulieman Benn to call upon at Lord's, as well as Chris Gayle's under-estimated off-darts, but Swann imagined that whoever does get selected would endure some hard toil on what promises to be another flat and featureless strip. "Lord's is a belting batting wicket, and the powers that be are probably happy that the games here go five days," he said. "I'd love it if all wickets were like Northants in August, but I don't think that'll happen."

Looking further afield, the two-spinner policy could well be one that England calls upon come the Ashes, especially now that Australia, shorn of the services of Shane Warne, are struggling to find an adequate slow-bowling replacement. Their latest selection, Bryce McGain, was flogged for 149 runs in 18 wicketless overs during a traumatic debut in Cape Town in March, and it remains one of the few departments in which England can realistically claim the pre-series ascendancy.

"I'm not going to say we should prepare wickets that favour spin bowlers," said Swann, "but whichever way we can win a Test, that's the way we've got to approach it, regardless of who were are playing against or where. It's disappointing we are not playing on a couple of grounds which favour our methods of winning Test matches, but we've got to roll with that and move on." As with many of his team-mates, the non-selection of Old Trafford as an Ashes venue clearly grates.

But then again, such Ashes talk remains premature, because Swann himself is still a rookie in international terms. Until he is named in the eleven to take on West Indies on Wednesday, he will remain uncapped in home Tests, a fact that took the man himself somewhat aback.

"Stupidly I hadn't even realised until yesterday, when Cooky said, this will be your home debut," said Swann, whose first six months in the side - encompassing the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the Pietersen-Moores debacle, as well as several on-field dramas - have been among the most eventful in England's long Test history. "There were bombs going off, and flights home, and petulance here, and captains going there, and different coaches, it was like being in a pantomime. I completely misread the script and thought I must have played 50-60 Tests by now. In fact it's only five."

Swann's tally might well have been 50-60 Tests had he made his debut during his first England tour back in 1999-2000. All that is history now, but his roundabout route to recognition is remarkable nonetheless. "Sometimes I still find it hard to believe I'm playing for England, because I had so many years when I didn't believe I was ever going to play again," he said. "I wake up every day with a little smile on my face, a bit of a cheeky grin, because I still feel like a bit of a charlatan, sneaking a living. Then again I still feel like I'm an awardwinning rock star who hasn't yet been discovered. But the truth is I'm crap at that."

His prospects of an extended international career have been dramatically improved by last month's successful operation on his right elbow, from which no fewer than 29 fragments of bone were removed by the surgeons. "I think it surprised a few people just how much junk there was in there," he said. "Luckily I haven't had to change anything, but my arm was a bit of a mess after the winter.

"It didn't affect my bowling so much, it was just after a day's bowling it was almost impossible to start up again the following day. Once it had all gone, I'm now waking up in the morning and it doesn't feel like it's falling off, which is a relief." Given the amount of work he is likely to be put through this summer, starting at Lord's and extending through all formats of the game, his fitness is a timely fillip for a team that could really do with spinning a victory of any description as soon as possible.