SA's Vernon Philander celebrates the wicket of England’s Keaton Jennings during the Trent Bridge Test last July. PIC/Getty Images

If bowling in Test cricket is all about attacking the top of off stump, there are few better exponents of this in world cricket than Vernon Philander. He may not have the height of Morne Morkel, the pace of Kagiso Rabada or the all-round natural flair of Dale Steyn, but Big Vern, as he is called in these parts, is a master of holding the ball on one line and getting it to move this way and that, off the pitch.