England’s New Pace Pack: A Complete Fast-Bowling Attack
Lord’s has seen plenty of English fast-bowling false dawns. This one feels different.
Yes, the usual caveats apply. Pakistan’s batting has looked fragile all tour, and these are English pitches doing exactly what English pitches love to do in early summer. But strip away the noise and one thing is hard to ignore: England, shorn of Ben Stokes the all-rounder, have stumbled onto a pace attack that suddenly looks both dangerous and intriguingly complete.
On day two of the second Test at Lord’s, Pakistan folded for 109. The wrecking crew? Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson – four quicks who, crucially, don’t all do the same thing.
Root’s New Arsenal
After the first-Test win at Headingley, Joe Root didn’t bother hiding his excitement. His pace bowlers, he said, “do not know how good they can be,” a line that sounded less like flattery and more like a warning to everyone else. He talked up their variety, and that was the telling word.
In his previous spell as captain, Root often turned to a battery of right-arm seamers – James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Stokes – masters of their craft, but broadly similar in style. This time, he has contrast everywhere he looks.
The most obvious difference is pace. England made a point of chasing high-speed options after being outgunned in last winter’s Ashes. Now that policy is starting to show teeth.
At one end at Lord’s, Archer thundered in at up to 95mph, the quickest opening spell of his career. At the other, Robinson operated at around 78mph. Same ball, same conditions, totally different questions for the batters to answer.
Across the series, Tongue has actually clocked a higher average speed than Archer, even if Archer has sent down a greater percentage of deliveries above 90mph. Atkinson slots just behind that pair, brisk and hostile without quite matching their top-end heat. Archer, sharing the load in this four-man unit, even joked he could play until he is 40.
Michael Vaughan likes what he sees. “It is a good attack,” the former captain said. “They can all get better and that is a really good sign.”
He didn’t hide his view on Pakistan’s struggles either. “This batting line-up is possibly the easiest I have seen to bowl to,” he said, before adding the line that really matters for England’s long-term plans: “This attack, bowling the way they are doing, will challenge better batting line-ups. They will challenge the Australia line-up quite nicely if they bowl like this.”
Robinson, the Metronome With a Knife
If Archer and Tongue bring the sizzle, Robinson brings the scalpel.
What he lacks in raw speed, he’s replacing with ruthless precision. Four more wickets on Friday pushed his tally to 17 for the summer at a staggering average of 8.84 across three Tests. Conditions have helped, no question, but Robinson has maximised them by doing what he does best: hitting the same awkward spot, again and again, until batters crack.
Against Pakistan, 70% of his deliveries have landed on a good length. No one else in this attack is close to that number. Atkinson is next on the list with 52%.
The result? Pakistan’s batters have spent long stretches pinned in the crease, starved of release shots, prodded into mistakes. On Friday, Robinson sent down 31 consecutive balls without conceding a run. His 13 overs cost only 11 runs – the most economical analysis by a pace bowler sending down 10 or more overs in England for 13 years.
Vaughan’s verdict was simple: “Ollie Robinson is an extraordinarily skillful bowler.”
England’s coaches want a little more pace from him, pushing him towards 81mph more consistently. Hit that mark regularly, and Vaughan believes he will trouble “all batting line-ups in all conditions.” For now, he has already become something England cried out for last winter: a tone-setter with the new ball who makes run-scoring feel like hard labour.
Archer, Tongue, Atkinson: Angles and Targets
Archer offers something different again. His natural angle makes him a nightmare for left-handers. The numbers back it up: he averages 23.9 against southpaws, compared with 31.3 against right-handers. For a side eyeing another shot at Australia, with David Warner and a clutch of left-handers at the top, that’s not a trivial detail.
Tongue and Atkinson flip that pattern almost perfectly. Tongue averages 21.5 against right-handers but 35.7 against left-handers. Atkinson’s figures tell a similar story: 19.9 versus right-handers, 31.7 against lefties.
That contrast gives Root options. Match-ups matter in modern Test cricket, and England suddenly have bowlers tailored to different sides of the wicket.
Tongue brings another weapon: a relentless assault on the stumps. His position on the crease and his trajectory mean he’s constantly threatening the timber. Across this series, 22% of his deliveries would have hit the stumps. At Headingley, where he took eight wickets in the first Test, that figure climbed to 29% – the highest by an England bowler in a home Test for 15 years.
It’s not just pressure; it’s payoff. Two more wickets on Friday lifted his strike-rate to a wicket every 39.8 balls. That places him 12th on the all-time list of bowlers to have taken 30 Test wickets – elite territory, however early the sample.
“Tongue is the one who is really developing the best of them,” observed Jonathan Agnew, and it’s hard to argue with the trajectory.
Eyes on the Ashes
Strip it all back and the picture is clear. England have a four-man pace attack in which each bowler brings something different: Archer’s pace and angle, Robinson’s control, Tongue’s stump-hunting aggression, Atkinson’s lively support. They share the load, they ask different questions, they hit different batters in different ways.
A home Ashes series is now less than a year away. The pitches will be harder, the batters better, the scrutiny brutal.
England, for once, might arrive with an attack that doesn’t just survive that examination – it might set it.
