Tinselled bowling duos hand England fresh resolution for new Ashes year

Atkinson and Carse have followed in Anderson’s and Broad’s giant footsteps, while Filer and Bell are a pairing to fulfil Christmas wishes

Fast bowlers are the Formula One engines of a cricket team: purringly powerful when they want to be, painfully vulnerable when bits fall off. When a partnership works, and sticks – Lillee and Thompson, Ambrose and Walsh, Wasim and Waqar – they carry the team on their shoulders. When that partnership fades, teams often falter, losing their identity.

It is nearly 17 years ago that Michael Vaughan and Peter Moores informed Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison that they were to be dropped for the second Test against New Zealand at Wellington, replaced by James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Harmison played only six more Tests and Hoggard never played for England again, while Anderson and Broad famously went on to be the most successful bowling pair in Test history.

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