Ian Blackwell

His batting is powerful and aggressive, while his bowling is accurate if somewhat lacking in variation. Turning the ball away from the right-handed batsman, Blackwell generally bowls flat deliveries, not giving the ball the loop generally used to induce the batsman into poor strokes. At county level he is used as a genuine all-rounder, but for England his batting has been inconsistent (he averages just 15) and his most useful role has been to bowl economically and restrict the flow of runs.

He has never had a sustained run in the England side, but has recently been recalled after enjoying success as the captain of Somerset, where he succeeded Graeme Smith. He appears to be England's second-choice spinner in one-day games after Ashley Giles, and may succeed him when he retires. Blackwell was called up for the England Test squad after Giles had to withdraw from the 2006 tour to India. After impressing in warm-up matches he was selected for the 1st Test against India on 1 March in Nagpur. However, he used not very much by captain Andrew Flintoff, only bowling 6 fairly expensive overs in the first Indian innings, in comparison to fellow left arm spinner Monty Panesar's 42 overs. In the second Indian innings, Blackwell was initially more economical but as India went on an audacious chase of the huge total set to them by England, he was brought on to prevent the batsmen from scoring quickly but conceded 18 runs in his first over. This came on top of a nervous duck in his only opportunity with the bat and Blackwell was subsequently dropped for the second Test, being replaced by Liam Plunkett. Blackwell remained first choice spinner for the ODI series however. Although England lost the series 5-1, Blackwell's performances were of a varying quality. 10 overs in the first ODI went for just 26 runs at the same time as picking up 3 wickets, his cheapest ever spell in a ODI, while in the last of 7 matches, his 10 overs went for 51 runs.

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