Donald to the rescue

/ Editor / 26 May 2007 / Leave a Comment

England's misfiring fast bowlers will have a new mentor for the third Test after South African legend Allan Donald was drafted into the coaching set-up.

New coach Peter Moores has been quick to ring the changes since taking over from Duncan Fletcher, bringing in former Zimbabwe Test batsman Andy Flower to work with the batsmen and now he has added another recent retiree to aid the bowlers.

England's pacemen have struggled to bowl out teams in recent times, with loss of form, injury and inexperience all contributing to a downturn in fortunes.

Steve Harmison has been the chief culprit, with the former world number one-ranked bowler devoid of confidence and rhythm and looking a shadow of the man who destroyed the West Indies in the Caribbean three years ago.

Donald's record as a player stands up alongside the best in the game, with 330 victims in 72 Tests and 272 one-day international scalps from 164 ODIs, and Moores believes he is the right man to turn round England's flagging fortunes in the pace-bowling department.

"It's a big positive that someone of Allan's stature wants to come along," he said. "I want to make sure that whoever we bring in fits our set-up and it's the right person and we don't just think that because it's a great name we should just pull them in."

With Simon Jones still missing from the pace quartet who won the Ashes on home soil in 2005, and Mathew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff currently sidelined from the second Test at Headingley, Donald will be working with the likes of Liam Plunkett, Saj Mahmood and James Anderson, as well as Harmison, and Betfair customers will have to keep an eye on the Top wicket-taker market for the current series with the Windies.

Spinner Monty Panesar, who seems to improve every time he bowls for England, heads the market on 1.52, while Harmison is on offer at 4.6, despite his recent woes.

Flintoff may well come back into the side if his ankle problem clears up and Hoggard's thigh injury should heal in a couple of weeks but these two will struggle to take sufficient wickets in the remainder of the series to catch the Northants' spinner.