The England cricket blogosphere, such as it is, has wasted no time looking for someone to blame for the defeat in the first test. James Anderson is a popular choice and, indeed, it may seem like he's a good target. I'm not so sure.

One problem with non-Sabermetric cricket analysis is that it has a tendency to focus on the trees instead of the wood. Anderson did not bowl well, lacking both economy and penetration. This problem was exacerbated by the injury to Hoggard, and the reluctance to give some of his second innings overs to Bopara. However, all bowling has value, and while brickbats are tossed at Anderson's 4.32 economy, Sidebottom's horrific Strike Rate of 240 goes largely unremarked.

Another problem with pointing fingers at Anderson is that the level of expectations he is carrying is beyond is actual abilities. His stats in recent years are dominated by an exceptional performance against India.

			Versus		Bowling Average		Economy		Strike Rate
			India		28.85			3.25		 53.25
			RSA/AUS/SRL	81.00			4.39		110.67 

However, Anderson's value lies in the fact that he can go out and bowl 15-20 overs per innings and take a wicket. As long as you bear in mind that he's a replacement, not a front-line bowler, you'll have his value in perspective.

But more annoying about the whole spirit of England cricket commentary is the notion that "if only we'd done this or that differently" somehow they would have won. Nasser Hussain, writing in the print version of the London Daily Mail, seemed to think England lost owing to a want of ruthlessness. Yet as I showed in an earlier post here, on paper England just aren't good enough. Their bowlers give up too many runs for the quantity their batsmen can score, or vice versa. Sri Lanka were coming off a difficult tour against Australia, where spin is muffled and almost all teams look worse than they really are relative to the rest of the world.

So where does that leave England? They are now likely to be without Hoggard, their best bowler, who is suffering a back injury. In the circumstances, I would probably make a virtue of necessity, and deploy two spin bowlers for the next Test, using spin to make up for the threadbare cupboard of pace, swing and seam; as well, I'd give Harmison a turn to open the bowling. As to whom of Sidebottom or Anderson to drop? Well, I'd give the chance to the guy showing the most vim in training and the changing room, something for which statistics offer no insight.