Dale Steyn is the best of South Africa’s stock of young quicks Dale Steyn is the best of South Africa’s stock of young quicks.
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Everyone talks about our dearth of spinners. Are we also lacking a world-class pace battery?

I think Australia’s tactics – particularly with Johnson – need to be reviewed because it’s quite apparent they just want him to go across right-handers and bowl to a seven-two field. So it’s a battle of patience rather than getting people out as quickly as you can. And with Australia making less runs, they can’t afford these tactics. And with Johnson’s wrist and arm position, he just isn’t going to tail them in to right-handers. It just isn’t going to happen. I mean, he’s got a good wrist position for reverse swing, and he didn’t even do that in India. They need to step back and let some people from outside look at it because, once again, their introspection is not working at the moment.

Are coaches still attached to the idea of replicating Glenn McGrath?

If they are, they’re not doing it very well. Look, the big picture is there’s no Warne and McGrath, who were outstanding bowlers who would tell you what the tactics are. Maybe the bowlers now need to tell the captain and coaching staff what tactics they should be using rather than the other way around. Bowlers need to be in charge of their modus operandi, they need to have input. Then they can believe what they do, rather than having a captain – who’s a batsman – telling them what to do all the time.

Have our quicks lost the ability to swing the ball? 

The straight answer is yes. Even the Indians swung it more in India. Technically, the Australians just aren’t getting it right. Lee didn’t technically get it right in India, and he didn’t have the seam in a good enough position in Brisbane. Mitchell Johnson does not swing the ball into right-handers. He’s getting people out with persistence, letting them make errors rather than actually bowling people out. He doesn’t swing the ball at all because his hand’s low and his wrist release is terrible … So yes, our guys are technically not able to swing the ball because they don’t get the seam in the right spot. These things are solvable – Australia just aren’t concentrating on swinging the ball at the moment.

So you don’t see Mitchell Johnson as our next spearhead?

He’s certainly not a strike bowler. He’s not getting a lot of new ball wickets. He bowls with reasonable pace, bowls across the right-hander all the time, and then waits for batsmen to go hard at him. A classic example from the Brisbane Test was Ross Taylor, who was batting very well. He was running out of partners, so he drove hard at a wide one and nicked it. And that’s what the Australians want everyone to do. He’s just not getting quality players out often enough, so to suggest that he’s a strike bowler is not right. He’s a good stock bowler, but he’s limited in what he does. He’s not threatening quality top-order batsmen and he’s not getting early breakthroughs. Unfortunately for Australia, neither’s Brett Lee and that’s why they struggled against India. And if one person from New Zealand had made a century, they might have won that first Test, too.