Ryan Sidebottom, Stuart Broad and James Anderson - the new face of England's pace attack

The England cricket tour of New Zealand has been something of an emotional roller coaster for the England players and the Barmy Army.

The team dominated the Twenty20 games, were clobbered in the One-Day series and have now taken the Test series 2-1. But the Barmy Army has something else to cheer about - the emergence of cult hero Ryan Sidebottom as a legitimate star.

England’s established pace bowling duo of Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard came in with a good reputation, but on New Zealand’s low and slow tracks they struggled to adapt and now find themselves on the sideline.

In the Test series, Harmison and Hoggard only played the first game before being dropped in favour of youngsters Stuart Broad and James Anderson. Neither of the established pair bowled particularly well on a flat Hamilton pitch, picking up just five wickets between them and averaging 37.75 for Hoggard and 151 for Harmison.

On that same Hamilton pitch, Sidebottom picked up a hat-trick, and on an even less helpful Napier pitch took seven wickets in the first innings. In fact Sidebottom has taken more than 50% of England’s wickets in the Test series, cementing his place as the team’s top strike bowler. His efforts also won him the Man of the Series award.

Anderson put in a good performance in Wellington, but made little impact in Napier. Complimenting the dominating performances of Sidebottom and Anderson has been the steady influence of Broad, contributing a few wickets but keeping the pressure on from the other end while his colleagues worked their magic.

Broad has also shown himself to be a real workhorse, taking the unforgiving job of bowling into the wind in Wellington as well as bowling a large number of overs in a row, allowing his captain to attack from both ends.

Now that they have completed a series victory against New Zealand, England return home for a series against, in an oddity of scheduling, New Zealand. In local conditions it would be likely that Harmison and Hoggard would play better, but the play of Sidebottom, Broad and Anderson could well mean they do not even get a chance.

One tour does not make a career, but Sidebottom, Broad and Anderson have done everything that has been asked of them, and more. For them to be left out of the team now would be a tragedy, and for Harmison and Hoggard, this appears to be the end of the line.