Everybody's talking about it. Not Big Brother, but whether England's batsmen have been using the sweep-shot too much. It's a topic that has kept the Sky Sports team entertained throughout this NatWest Series, but Nasser Hussain has defended his men vigorously. Our stats show why. Off 96 sweeps and reverse-sweeps they have attempted in this series, English batsmen have scored 136 runs - and been dismissed three times. Ronnie Irani and Alex Tudor fell against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford, and Nick Knight against India at The Oval. That's an average of 45.33 per wicket - perfectly acceptable, especially as one of those wickets was a tailender - and a strike rate of 142 runs per 100 balls. You would expect to score at least a run a ball off the sweep - it's an attacking shot - but this is still a good lick. It amounts to 425 off 50 overs.

There has been one unforeseen peril in sweeping though - run-outs. England have lost two batsmen to run-outs after sweeps have been played. Maybe there's something in the shot that predetermines difficulties between the wicket. More likely, however, it's a complete coincidence.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd