The problem for Jimmy Anderson - England's hero on the second day in Wellington - never seems to change. He's always the apprentice, never the master. Even when he bowls like a sorcerer.

He's only playing here, of course, by default. Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard messed up in Hamilton and so in comes Jimmy, the junior pro. He took his chance wonderfully with five wickets in 20 overs of hard effort. If he'd bowled unchanged throughout the innings he could only have got through 29 overs, so he didn't spend much time resting.

But as so often when Anderson plays a Test match, which is usually because someone more senior and more highly regarded has messed up or is injured, there was plenty of head-shaking among observers who couldn't help wondering what the big boys might have achieved in conditions like these. Anderson did well. Hoggard might have done better.

Anderson has been playing international cricket since 2002 but he is still only 25 years old and remains the promising youth. He'll be good when he grows up, we all say. Poor Jimmy. He rarely gets a fair crack of the whip.

The big thing about Anderson that so often gets overlooked is that he has played a lot of his Test career as support bowler, when in fact his great talent is for swinging the new ball. That's what he does best and that's what he did here to slice the top off the New Zealand innings.

Yet often he has played for England and had to watch others take the new ball - whether it be Hoggard, Harmison or Ryan Sidebottom - before being asked to come on later when the shine has gone, the ball is soft and batting conditions are at their best.

Look what happened when Anderson last played a Test, in Kandy before Christmas. Armed with the new ball, Hoggard played the starring role while Anderson spent the match being smashed to all parts, at one point going for six fours in an over to Sanath Jayasuriya.

Has Anderson got worse since he first burst onto the scene as a Test bowler in 2003, or just unluckier? That summer, against Zimbabwe and South Africa, he took the new ball on a regular basis and took a lot of wickets. Later, after Hoggard, Harmison and Andrew Flintoff had taken centre stage, Anderson struggled to ever get his hands on the new ball.

The figures brook no argument. In innings in which he opens the bowling, Anderson has taken 46 wickets at 33.6 apiece. When he comes on first, second or third change, his returns drop to 21 wickets at 45.7 each. All his five-wicket hauls have come as a new-ball bowler.

Then there's his record in one-day internationals, when he almost always takes the new white ball, which swings even more than the red one. His economy rate is high, admittedly, but he has a terrific record at getting people out. In fact, his tally of 121 wickets places him fourth on England's all-time list. His strike-rate of a wicket every 35.5 balls puts him second only to Flintoff. Not bad for a kid.

Another element to his magic is his fast arm, which often deceives batsmen who have just come to the crease, again something that means he is more dangerous when open the bowling than coming on later. Twenty three of his victims in ODIs - or around one in five - have fallen for ducks. Matthew Bell here was the seventh Test match batsman to do so.

It is time England acknowledged this fact and made sure that whenever Anderson plays, he is given the new ball just as religiously as has been the case with Hoggard and Sidebottom. Apart from anything else, he seems to thrive on the responsibility of spearheading the attack.

That was certainly the case against India last summer and appeared to be the case here in Wellington.