The Ashes: Jones Gears Up to Move Out of Reverse

All the emphasis is on the destructive power of reverse swing, with Simon Jones roundly acclaimed as a Welsh fast bowler who can recover the Ashes for England because of his mastery of a technique still young enough to claim a certain mystery.

Except that talk of reverse swing should properly have ended last week at Old Trafford when Australia's last pair escaped with a draw to keep the series at 1-1. At Trent Bridge, where battle resumes tomorrow and where the grass is lusher, the phenomenon occurs reluctantly.

Old Trafford was always recognised as the abrasive ground where England, through the combined skills of Jones and Andrew Flintoff, had the best chance to make reverse swing pay. Trent Bridge tends to reward old-fashioned virtues - conventional swing, the sort of stuff that will make any swing bowler of yesteryear nod that the game has not changed irredeemably.

It may well be that John Buchanan, Australia's coach, can confidently abandon his search for an undiscovered treatise of a Chinese warlord who managed to fight off arrows curving in unusual directions and rest happy in the knowledge that at Trent Bridge this will be cricket as he knows it.

Many believe that Nottingham has become even more receptive to conventional swing since the building of the new Fox Stand, among them the groundsman, Steve Birks.

"We've had 18 wickets fall on the first day against Middlesex and 14 against Warwickshire," he said. "The pitch will be flat, but you can't account for the swing."

In case Buchanan relaxes too much, however, Troy Cooley, England's bowling coach, emphasised yesterday that Jones is far from a one-trick pony. He might be rare among fast bowlers in discovering the art of reverse swing several years before learning to control a conventional outswinger, but he has proved all summer that he is now adept at both versions.

Jones can remain an influential figure in this England team and, who knows, before the summer is out someone might actually recognise him in Llanelli. "It's always been a rugby town," he says with relief, a man who does not welcome celebrity.

Cooley accepts that Jones and the England attack face a new challenge in Nottingham. "Conditions play a big part in reverse swing and you never really know until the match gets going," he says, "but traditionally Trent Bridge has been a conventionally swinging ground. The two types of swing don't normally go together because of the condition that you need for the ball to get in. At Trent Bridge, it will swing traditionally for longer.

"Simon worked pretty hard at the end of last season on getting his technique strong enough. He now has a pretty repeatable action. He has always been able to reverse swing it. Now he is able to outswing it normally as well.

"If it doesn't reverse swing, I'm not too worried. We have a good attack and we do cover most bases when they are bowling well. We have conventional swing bowlers, we have quicks and we have Ashley Giles, who can spin it."

England supporters of a nervous disposition will blanche at the thought that the best practitioner of traditional swing bowling in this England side is Matthew Hoggard, who has had an underused series, with seven wickets in 56 overs, and who Australia have fancied getting after all summer.

"It's definitely a good chance for Hoggy," said Cooley. "Everybody has worked hard to get this England pace attack functioning as a unit and I think they are doing it. Hoggy put his hand up in South Africa, we had Harmi's pace in the West Indies and Freddie is in there all the time."

There is no sense here of an England side that has missed its chance. Jones accepts that a week's recuperation was necessary after the draw at Old Trafford - "it was the toughest cricket I have played for a while and everybody was mentally drained" - but insists: "We have played the better cricket in the last two Test matches. We are really confident for a young side and we are looking to seal the series. Ironically, he came to terms with reverse swing during the winter when England's academy squad hired the Australian facilities in Adelaide. It adds to the sense of an Australian set-up so superior in traditional methods that it could not trouble itself with the new.

"Reverse swing was more conducive in Australia because it was so hot and dry," he said. "It was perfect. I got to grips with what I was doing with the ball and I have been working on it ever since. It's a great feeling that the Australians are taking notice. But it is nothing new. We have done it against other Test sides."

Cooley has been pilloried from afar as the coach whose meddling undermined Jimmy Anderson's natural potential, so he deserves to bask in Jones's success, because the two have been closely linked.

Jones's last Ashes series did not survive the first day of the opening Test when he ruptured a cruciate ligament in his right knee, trying to save a boundary in Brisbane, and was jeered off by some brain-dead Australian fans.

A breakneck paceman who could barely raise a limp was forced to turn to analysis. "I'm a better bowler now than I was then and maybe it was just a chance to work on my game," Jones admitted. "I had nearly 18 months off cricket. I went to the academy a second time and I worked with Troy really closely. It's not all about pace. But I've still hit 94mph in South Africa, and 92-93 in this series, so it's not exactly slow."