Swann Finds A Bunny In Smith

In his seven Tests to date, Graeme Swann has pulled a rabbit out of the hat for his country on more than one occasion. In this back-to-back series with the West Indies, the world's leading wicket taker in Tests this year has certainly found himself a bunny in Devon Smith.

Swann has dismissed the left-handed opener five times in three Tests, and in every way imaginable. Smith's nightmares must centre round the grinning face of England's new spinner.

Taking a batsman's wicket creates a mental post-it note which clings to the consciousness of batsman and bowler. Over the course of following innings and matches it's nagging presence can either have little consequence or, in rare cases, escalate out of all control - becoming a full-blow horror novel. This is what Smith has experienced, with Swann seemingly being able to get him out at will - an unwelcome hangover from the Tests the Caribbean series.

The great thing about having a bunny, from the bowler's point of view, is that it entirely warps perspective. A batsman usually adept at countering spin can be sent into a flutter by a slow bowler who has his number. An experienced old pro can suffer fatal lapses of concentration every time the rookie bowler gets chucked the ball by his captain. And a man in imperious form can contract the jitters as soon as his nemesis begins a spell. 

Conventional wisdom does not come into it. The fact is that any other right-arm offbreak bowler in an England shirt would not cause Smith so much strife. Bring Swann's head into the picture and alarm bells begin to ring. It's not the bowling Smith can't play, it's the bowler.

If Smith can draw any comfort from the situation, it is that he finds himself in good company. So too does Swann. 

It could be argued that Glenn McGrath got the better of every batsman he came up against, but a couple in particular stand out. 

Former England captain Mike Atherton is often cited as McGrath's bunny, and with good reason - the deadly Australian dismissed him 19 times. It is often overlooked that he also claimed the prize wicket of Brian Lara 15 times, although his average of 41.40 runs per dismissal is vastly superior to Atherton's 9.89.

Of course, McGrath was an outstanding bowler, but Atherton came up against a plethora of those, and his reasonable Test average in the high thirties is testament to the fact that no other troubled him to the same extent.

McGrath's colleague, Shane Warne, was a similarly terrifying prospect for the batting fraternity, with no one suffering at his fingertips more than Daryll Cullinan. 

Warne dismissed the South African 12 times - not his record in international cricket - but the nature of Cullinan's travails make him the poster boy for all Warne's victims. The spin king's hold over Cullinan was such that he is now chiefly remembered as Shane Warne's bunny, despite being a mainstay of the South African team of the nineties, and the fact that he did, unlike many bunnies, eventually manage to improve on his hapless record - as he put it, by then "the story had been told".

Having a bunny affords the bowler an certain arrogance. Warne summed up his dominance by saying, "I was asked who I would like to bowl to for a living. I said I would be a very rich man if I was to bowl to [Cullinan]." Clearly he knew the truth in his words, the problem was that so too did Cullinan.

It is a phenomenon of the game and one of the many elements that make the bowler-batsman battle so intriguingly complex. Graeme Swann may be no Shane Warne, but right now Devon Smith would prefer to be facing the latter.