England's problems against spin bowling

England have surpassed all expectations and have been much better than India in most aspects of the game in the ongoing ODI series, but the one area where they haven't quite always got it right is the ability to dominate spin. Piyush Chawla has already dominated Kevin Pietersen, dismissing him twice in the first three matches, while England's batsmen have struggled to decipher Ramesh Powar's flight and clever variations of pace.

India's think tank has made a few errors with strategy in the ODI series, and one of them was playing only one specialist spinner in the first match. England scored 175 between the 12th and 41st overs in that game, but more importantly, India didn't take a single wicket during that stretch.

As the table below shows, spin has always been an excellent option for India in ODIs against England. Since 2000, Indian spinners have taken 77 wickets in 25 games against England, which translates into an average of more than three wickets per match. The strike-rate of 43 balls per wicket is superb too - it means spinners take nearly three wickets if they bowl 20 overs against England; and only against Bangladesh is their strike-rate better.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Australians, who have tackled the Indian slow bowlers with scarcely any trouble at all. They average more than 50 runs per wicket at over five per over, and concede less than two wickets per 20 overs of spin.

In fact, spinners from all teams have had a fair amount of success against England. West Indies' part-timers have served them particularly well, taking a wicket every 38 deliveries. Surprisingly Sri Lanka, despite having Muttiah Muralitharan in their ranks, have only been moderately successful against England, and the same can be said of Daniel Vettori's team, New Zealand.

The table below shows why West Indies and Zimbabwe have had so much success against England. Chris Gayle and Grant Flower are both known more for their exploits with the bat in the top order, but England's batsmen have found their part-time spin equally difficult to handle.

Michael Vaughan had stated recently that Powar would be a huge threat to England, and Powar's numbers show why he is held in such high regard - in eight games he has already taken 13 wickets. The player he replaced in the Indian squad, Harbhajan Singh, has done even better, with an average of less than 23 and an economy-rate of under four runs per over. Powar and Harbhajan are among five offspinners in the top six leading spinners against England.

Surprisingly England have tackled Anil Kumble pretty well, taking plenty of runs off him without giving him too many wickets. That's probably because they've played him like a medium pacer, not a slow bowler.

Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff are the two English players who have scored the most runs against spin since 2000, but the player who has handled slow bowling the best during this period is a player England would dearly love to have back in the line-up. Marcus Trescothick was missed in the Test series against India for his solidity at the top, but in ODIs he has been excellent against spin, averaging more than 48 and scoring at more than a run a ball. Nick Knight has an exceptional record as well, while among the current lot, Ian Bell, with his twinkle-toed footwork, has done much better than his mates.

The contrast with the performance of the Indian batsmen against spin is quite stark, with the top five scoring plenty of runs and getting them pretty quickly. Unfortunately for India, though, England's bowling attack in this one-day series is built around some rather quicker stuff.