England bowlers down on pace recently?

Anyone else noticed that the England bowlers have been down on pace recently in test matches and ODI's?

Broad who in tests is normally 85-86 is now bowling 80-81, and in ODI's has been known to get into the 90's is now bowling a max of 86.

Same with Bresnan, In the ashes he was bowling 85 mph but now seems to be around the high 70's low 80's.

Anderson seem to of lose a couple of mph but not as much as the other two, getting old wanting to prolong career?

I can think of a couple of reasons for this, the first been that they were saving themselves for the SA series. Second been that they have realised that you don't need to bowl fast to get wickets and gone for more accuracy in steady of speed.

The exception to this seems to be Finn.

Anyone else noticed this and have any theories to why this may be?

I dunno if its purpsoefull or not, but in odi stuff nothing wrong with taking abit of pace of the ball, but then conditions have been damp and humid- so does that bring the pace down as well

Don't know why this is but it is a reasonable observation. I'd suggest:

1. It isn't true that (most) international bowlers bowl at 90 or even 85+. These are their high speeds but during long spells they will often be slower.
2. Speed guns are a bit inconsistent
3. They are holding back for SA

Shelsey's point 2 for me. Better to judge the speed of bowling on the batsman's reactions than the speed gun. At the England vs Windies T20 the other week Dernbach was bowling as fast as Finn and Edwards according to the speed gun. Sat side on it clearly wasn't the case!

why do we even need a speed gun- surely hawkeye could tell us

"1. It isn't true that (most) international bowlers bowl at 90 or even 85+. These are their high speeds but during long spells they will often be slower."

The point i am making is that Board and Bresnan were bowling 85 consistently last year but don't seem to be, could be the speed guns as the aussie bowlers arn't as fast as I have seen them before (Pattinson and Cummings) who i've seen at 150 kph + which is like 93/94 (I think)

Weather playing a bit of an impact? Bowlers muscles not warm as they could be etc meaning they're not bowling as quick as possible?

hodge wrote:Weather playing a bit of an impact? Bowlers muscles not warm as they could be etc meaning they're not bowling as quick as possible?

A possibility. Although it must be said this was most noticeable in the Trent Bridge test (when it was quite warm). Even Broad bowled quite a few balls below 80 and Bresnan was also off the pace.

Does cold weather also mean the ball is slower through the air? Just curious

must do

Speed is measured out of the hand so that shouldn't effect it.