England's pace attack good with Dukes and Kookaburra

Bresnan's record — eight Tests, eight wins

The story of the India-England series has been the success of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan.

This trio, apart from the likes of Chris Tremlett, Steve Finn, Graham Onions and off-spinner Graeme Swann, has operated in assorted combinations in recent times and has largely accounted for England's surge in Tests, the Ashes series and against South Africa, Pakistan, West Indies and Sri Lanka.

Individual skill

They have offered ample evidence of individual skill in the manipulation of the Australian Kookaburra ball with a fast disappearing seam and also the English Dukes ball with a prominent seam.

Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff proved competent with the Indian SG Test ball with a pronounced seam during their last two visits to India in 2001-02 and 2005-06.

Anderson has played three Tests in India in a period of three years and has taken 10 wickets, with a six-wicket haul at the Wankhede Stadium in the 2005-06 series. England beat India then by 212 runs.

Clearly England looked upon Anderson to lead the pace pack and subdue the Indian line-up, with Virender Sehwag absent at the top order.

His tally of 12 wickets in the current series is only three behind Broad's 15 and Bresnan's seven in one Test at Trent Bridge.

Since his debut against Zimbabwe (five for 73 at Lord's), Anderson has advanced rapidly to 231 wickets in 61 Tests, going past the likes of Flintoff (219), Steve Harmison (222) and Darren Gough (229) and taking the ninth slot among England's highest wicket-takers in Tests.

More significantly his tally of 142 wickets at 22.83 has contributed to England's victory in 30 Tests, of these 105 (at 21.40) in 22 home Tests.

The 29-year-old Lancashire fast bowler is now behind Freddie Trueman (177, 142), Ian Botham (172, 120) and Harmison (143, 107) in playing a decisive role in England's overall victories and at home in particular.

It's almost certain that he will move ahead of Harmison. He's now figured in three victories against India — Wankhede, Lord's and Trent Bridge. It's been a dream run for Anderson since taking 23 wickets against Pakistan last year; he followed this up with 24 wickets in the Ashes series in Australia, his best in 22 Test series.

England fielded Anderson, Tremlett and Broad for the Lord's Test. Though nagged by heel and knee injuries and poor returns in three Tests against Sri Lanka (eight wkts at 48.75), England and, in particular, coach Andy Flower and captain Andrew Strauss would have no reason to regret backing Broad when they had options in Finn and Bresnan.

Broad had moved on from his one for 84 and one for 50 against India at Mohali two years ago and had become another England seamer to take 100 plus wickets, 18 in the Ashes series of 2009, 12 against South Africa and 14 against Pakistan last year confirming his talent.

His robust half-century and a fiery burst with the ball at Trent Bridge truly knocked the Indians down and won him the third man-of-the-match award in less than two years.

Of his 122 wickets in 30 Tests, 78 (at 24.56) have contributed to England's wins, 57 at 21.61 at home.

Tremlett played his part in the Lord's Test, but a hamstring strain paved the way for Bresnan to come in as the third seamer. Since his debut against the West Indies in 2009, in which he took three wickets in two Tests, Bresnan has played three Tests (in two series) against Bangladesh and taken 11 wickets and two against Australia taking 11 wickets.

Clean slate

On Monday he tore through the India second innings to finish with a career best five for 48 and made sure that his 100 per cent winning record for England in eight Tests remained.

Familiar home conditions may have favoured the England seam attack, but they still had to bowl a disciplined line, smartly vary the length and mix it up with short balls — as Bresnan did against Abhinav Mukund, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh.

Anderson, Broad and Bresnan were able to dismiss half the Indian side. There's hardly been a role for Swann (142 wkts in 34 matches, 85 towards England's wins, 49 at home); it's been an unrelenting combination of pace, swing and seam.