Full Name: Graeme Peter Swann
DOB: 24-03-1979, Northampton
Specialist: Bowler
Bats: Right Hand Bat
Bowls: Right Arm Off Spin
Major Teams: Nottinghamshire
A solitary One Day match in 2000 looked like being the sum total of off-spinner Graeme Swann's international appearances. A reputation as a bad tourist and trouble-maker saw him slip down the spinner's pecking order, but a successful move from Northamptonshire to Nottinghamshire in 2005 rapidly improved Swann's prospects of a recall.
Three productive seasons at Trent Bridge saw him selected for England's ODI series in Sri Lanka in late 2007 and Swann's bowling was a major component of the away team's surprise series win. A big turner of the ball, Swann also has a good batting eye - Notts use him as a limited overs pinch-hitter - and is a sharp in-fielder, suggesting a long run in the ODI team beckoned. However, Swann was ousted by county colleague Samit Patel during 2008, although he did enough to secure a second successive Test touring spot.
His impressive Test performances in India in December 2008, when he outbowled Monty Panesar proved how quickly fortunes can change - he was soon England's first choice spinner in West Indies after Christmas, taking eight wickets in his third Test at Antigua. Swann maintained his progress against the same opposition in the first domestic Test series of 2009, cementing his place as the team's premier spin bowler. The Summer culminated in him taking the final wicket in The Oval Test match which ensured England regained the Ashes.
Swann capped off an amazing 2009 by bowling England to an innings victory over the Proteas in the second Test in South Africa. He ended 2009 with 54 wickets in the calendar year, the most ever by an English spinner, in addition to being ranked the third best bowler in the world and the number one spinner.
Swann went on to enjoy success in the shorter format of the game in 2010 when he was England's front line spinner and arguably best bowler in their victorious ICC World Twenty20 squad. He ended the year breaking many of the records he set in 2009 - he was the leading wicket-taker in Tests in 2010 with 64 scalps at an average of 25.96 and was an integral part of England's Ashes-winning side down under, becoming more of a foil for the fast-bowling exploits of Anderson, Tremlett et al. Swann entered summer 2011 second behind Dale Steyn in the ICC Test bowling rankings and as number one in the ODI version of the rankings.
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Graeme Swann
Graeme Swann
Graeme Swann
Graeme Swann
Graeme Swann
Graeme Swann
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