Graham Onions

Why Graham Onions’ five-fer ain’t all that

After being clean bowled for a golden duck and then seeing his first ball carted for four, Graham Onions didn’t immediately knock Test cricket sideways with his brilliance.

A bit later, after three wickets in an over and 5-38, things looked a bit better.

But…

Have England found a great new Test bowler or have they further muddied selectorial waters which are arguably just damp soil?

Onions dismissed four of the West Indies’ last five batsmen and we can’t quite see what he offers that no-one else does. He’s quickish, like pretty much all of England’s bowlers; he’s not tall; and he doesn’t swing the ball much.

Not that he’s a bad bowler by any means and not that you can’t succeed in Test cricket with that sort of a bowling armoury. We just have a concern that here’s another name that’s been added to the debate about who England’s best bowlers are, meaning England aren’t closer to finding the right bowling attack, they’re further away.

Maybe he’s new coach Andy Flower’s inspired selection who’ll be around for years, but we’d far prefer it if there were something more obvious than that.

Graham Onions celebrates

Graham Onions was called into the England squad today and he’s celebrated in fine style.

It’s been debated whether runs scored at Taunton count as much, being as the pitch is famously so generous to batsmen. If that’s the case, what are wickets worth? Presumably more.

We’ve also argued that Taunton could be perceived as a good ground on which to rate potential Test players as Test pitches are generally more batsman-friendly than county ones. This applies to bowlers even more than batsmen. Get wickets here and you can get wickets on most pitches.

Durham made 543 in their current match against Somerset, so it’s reasonable to assume that the pitch is typically Tauntonian. In reply, Somerset were absolutely levelled by Graham Onions. All out for 69 with Onions dismissing five of the top seven on the way to 6-31.

There is no way that is a bad bowling performance. We’re not fully convinced that Onions is the best Durham bowler, but this kind of thing definitely helps.

We’re not going to let ourself get drawn into any Onions jokes, but we will ask this: has anyone ever met another Onions?