The wobble ball won and swing bowling paid for it

A delivery that gives up control of which way the ball moves has taken over, because the bowler no longer needs to know either.

Grip it across the shine, let the seam rock as it goes down the pitch, and let it land on whichever side of the seam it happens to land on. That is the whole idea. The ball might nip in, it might hold its line, it might go away a fraction, and the bowler bowling it does not know which and does not need to.

For a batter, that is a nightmare. For the craft of fast bowling, I think it has been a mixed blessing at best.

The appeal is obvious. Conventional swing needs a shiny side, a well-maintained ball, a bowler who can hold a stable seam angle at high speed and, most inconveniently, atmospheric and surface conditions that cooperate. Modern outfields are faster and drier, balls scuff differently, and in plenty of countries the ball simply does not swing for long. The wobble seam works when nothing is happening, because it does not rely on airflow over a smooth surface. It relies on the ball landing on the edge of a tilted seam and deviating off the pitch.

It is also easier. That is the part nobody says loudly. A young bowler can produce a passable wobble ball in a season, whereas an outswinger that holds its shape at high pace is years of work and can desert you in a fortnight if your wrist position drifts. When a cheaper skill delivers most of the reward, the expensive skill stops being taught with the same seriousness, and I think that is happening now.

What gets lost is the sequence. Conventional swing bowling is a planned art, where you set a batter up with three that go away and then bring one back, and the batter's uncertainty is manufactured by the bowler. Wobble seam outsources uncertainty to chance. It is effective and it is a little dumb, in the way that a scattergun is effective.

The honest defence is that Test batters have looked more troubled by it than by anything else in the last decade, and results are results.

I would just like one bowler in every attack who can still shine a ball and swing it both ways on a heavy afternoon, because when the wobble ball stops working, and on a flat, dry, fourth-day pitch it does, there is currently nobody to turn to.