Kumble ready to rumble

The sun has appeared, the pitches are drying and the spinners have started twiddling. It will suit India fine. They will welcome a dry Lord's pitch, which, if it has the same qualities as the Test wicket against Sri Lanka, will offer little encouragement for England's pacemen. To take the 20 wickets required to win a Test match, England rely predominantly on pace and swing, the Indians look to their spinners. This will provide an intriguing contrast in the second half of the summer.

We now recognise that a champion Test side require a world-class spinner with a bit of mystery. The Aussies have Warne, Pakistan have Saqlain, Sri Lanka Murali, the Indians Anil Kumble and Harbajhan Singh. England have only the stalwart Ashley Giles to support the pacemen.

Kumble is not so mysterious as he used to be. When he first appeared it took batsmen a while to recognise he was not a traditional leg-spinner. He hardly spins the ball from leg to off; nor does he bother much with flight. It is bounce that is the threat with Kumble, plus clever pace variations. He has to be played almost as if he is an in-swing bowler: cross-bat shots for the right-hander - the pull and cut - are dangerous.

At least the threat is familiar. Kumble has been playing Test cricket since 1990 and has had two successful spells in county cricket with Northants in 1995 and Leicestershire in 2000. Perhaps this familiarity has led to Kumble being the more defensive of the two Indian spinners. By contrast, Harbajhan is an out-and-out attacker. England's batsmen have coped well with Murali's off-spinners in the past year, but they were undone by Harbajhan in Mohali last winter.

Like Murali, Harbajhan has the 'mystery ball' that heads towards slip rather than turning into the right-hander, but that's where the similarity ends. He bowls a more attacking line, wider of off-stump. This brings his first slip into play, and also allows more run-scoring chances for the batsman. He is the type of spinner who is happy to take four for 80 from 20 overs, always attacking.

It will be fascinating to see how England use their spinner. Giles's main function is usually to give Nasser Hussain control and variation in the field and to allow him to rotate his seamers at the other end. In India, Giles bowled defensively for over after over, operating over the wicket and aiming at the rough outside the right-hander's leg stump. Is this this sort of Test cricket we want to see? No, but England will almost certainly use it to frustrate the Indians.

Tendulkar and Co will either use the pad repeatedly or launch an assault to put a stop to the tactic. A successful assault against Giles would at least be good for the game and spare us some drudgery.

Giles is forced to use this tactic since he lacks 'mystery' (remember that the mystery spinner is a phenomenon of the last decade and England are not the only international side without one). England are doing their best to unearth more spinners, which is why four are in the provisional list for the Academy - Monty Panesar, Ian Blackwell, James Tredwell and Gareth Batty.

None of these is 'mysterious', although Blackwell and Batty follow the modern trend of being able to bat vigorously in the middle order. Batty, an off-spinner, left The Oval to join us at Worcester this year and is having a fine season. He is working on the mystery ball that heads for slip, but it's not reliable yet. A winter with the Academy, and a trip to the home of spin, India, would be a great chance for him.

Australia have not been blessed with depth in spin over the past few years, although this has been concealed by the presence of Warne and Stuart MacGill. But there are a couple of likely lads on the horizon: Nathan Hauritz, an orthodox off-spinner, and Cameron White, an 18-year-old wrist spinner from Victoria.