In the first of his weekly blogs for thewisdencricketer.com the former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm has a look at the England bowling attack.

A convincing win for England at Lord’s, and the West Indies batting never got going. It’s the early season – and we never normally start a Test series this early – so the ball was always likely to wobble around a bit. Graham Onions is a swing bowler and it didn’t surprise me that he troubled them. But as you saw when Fidel Edwards was bowling, there is no substitute for pace, even in the early season. Fidel can get up above ninety mph, and he had England in trouble.

If there’s a guy who can bowl that three to five mph quicker that’s the difference. You can see that with the dismissal of Pietersen in England’s first innings. Edwards was generally bowling at around 88mph, then he gives Pietersen one at 92mph – an absolute pearler. Pietersen had to be very good to nick that.

Looking further ahead to the Ashes, when the pitches are a little bit dryer and slower later on, it will be a lot more difficult for guys like Onions and Tim Bresnan. England will need someone with a bit of extra pace and bounce and that person is Steve Harmison. The trouble is he’s not firing at the moment.

To bowl fast you need to have confidence and good rhythm. I don’t believe Harmison has a problem with rhythm. It’s something in his mind. Pace comes with confidence. If you have a confident mind and you are fit, you will bowl fast. If you’ve got a little something in the back of your mind it will slow you down.

You shouldn’t give guys like Harmison a central contract. I’m not speaking out against central contracts per se but there are certain characters that make up a team and there are certain ways to manage them. I don’t like the way he speaks at certain times. How I’m reading it at the moment, it doesn’t matter to Harmison if he doesn’t play against West Indies or Australia because he’s still got a central contract. At the back of his mind he’s an England player.

It seems as if he’s too comfortable. Fast bowlers are not comfortable people. You’ve always got to be striving because you know you’ve got to be a firestarter. You’ve got to be a force, mentally and physically. You’ve got to have the confidence to be in the opposing batsman’s face.

Steve just seems a little bit fragile at the moment. The simplest little thing knocks him off line. It seems he still hasn’t fully recovered from that first ball he bowled in the last Ashes series. I’ve never heard Steve say that was a terrible day. I remember young Stuart Broad’s reaction to getting hit for six sixes. He talked about it and said ‘look, it was one of those days, I tried everything and the batsmen got hold of me’. I thought great, this is a boy with real character who’s going to go far. From the way he talked about it you felt this boy was able to get it out of his system.

I’ve had my nightmares in the field and you have to be able to laugh at yourself and move on. With Steve, it seems like it’s still something in the back of his mind. He’s not open about it and doesn’t get it off his chest. The whole situation is worrying because I look around out there and I don’t see an out-and-out English pace bowler like Harmison. There are a lot of players out there who are line-and-length dibbly-dobblers.

I must also say this: Harmison should never play in the England team if he’s not using the new ball. He should have the confidence to say: ‘I want that new ball. As an out-and-out fast bowler that should be my right.’ Harmison as second-change. No way! You’re hiding him like that. The opposition see that the guy who is meant to be your quickest bowler is not taking the new ball and it’s a big psychological advantage.

Devon Malcolm is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board