England bowled over by Pattinson call up

A WEEK ago a guy with an Aussie accent who nobody recognised was named in the England test side at Headingly in one of the most controversial selections of recent years.

The debate is still raging on over the move to call up Darren Pattinson and it has been cited as one of the main reasons England lost the game.

Many people seem to have completely lost sight of the fact that England were completely outplayed and the Grimsby-born former roof tiler was actually one of their better performers.

He may not have looked spectacular as he took two wickets for 95 runs while the South Africans piled on a mammoth score, but he was certainly not out of his depth.

Pattinson was picked as a swing bowler in a game where none of the bowlers found any significant movement and he toiled away as the Proteas’ batsmen played excellently.

The man with only 11 first class games behind him was certainly more effective than Stuart Broad, whose batting is improving far quicker than his bowling.

The main question is whether Pattinson deserved to be there in the first place, with Ashes heroes Simon Jones, Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison as well as perennial twelfth man Chris Tremlett all overlooked in his favour.

Hoggard would have been the obvious selection, at his home ground and as a like-for-like swing bowling replacement for Ryan Sidebottom.

However, it would now seem his international days are over, as Mike Atherton pointed out - if he wasn’t going to get picked in those circumstances, when will he get back in the team?

Harmison is still seen as too much of a risk, despite his impressive showings for Durham this season.

The enigmatic front bowler will never be totally discarded because when he is on song he has a rare ability to send down deliveries of steepling bounce that trouble even the world’s top batsmen.

But he has let England down on too many occasions in the past and still needs to do more to regain the trust.

While Tremlett may be deemed unlucky, he doesn’t tend to swing the ball and was deemed an unsuitable replacement for Sidebottom.

Which leaves Jones, who has made a welcome return to form this season aided by the remarkably generous treatment of his new county Worcestershire - who have regularly rested the Welshman, sacrificing their short term needs for Jones’ long term well being.

For me he is up there with Pietersen and Flintoff as the key men for next summer’s Ashes series.

The key is his reverse swing which troubled the Aussies so much in 2005 and offers a way of taking wickets with and old ball – something that England have struggled to do in Jones’ absence.

But fitness is the only thing standing in Jones’ way and for the time being I am happy to see him easing himself back in at county level – even if he has himself claimed to be ready for a test return.

One baffling decision that largely went unnoticed was Jones’ call up to the provisional 30-man squad for the ICC Trophy.

Jones is a test specialist if ever there was one – at the age of 29 he has only played 34 List A one-day games and averages close to 40.

The only reason I can think of to include him was a simple gesture from the selectors to tell him that he is back in their plans.

There will be a lot of attention focused on England’s selection panel when they announce the team for the third test tomorrow.

Another area that Geoff Miller and his sidekicks Ashley Giles and James Whittaker must be considering carefully is the wicketkeeper.

England are still struggling to replace the void left by Alec Stewart since he retired five years ago.

‘The Gaffer’ was a fantastic asset to the team as he was more than capable of holding a place in the side for his batting alone – he averaged a shade under 40 in 133 tests – and was also an extremely reliable gloveman.

Among those who have tried to take up the mantle were Chris Read, who averaged 18.94 in 18 tests, James Foster, who averaged 25.11 in seven, and Geraint Jones, 23.91 in 34.

They failed to match anything like the amount of runs that Stewart offered and Matt Prior, who showed the potential to do that with an average of 40.14 in ten matches, was discarded as he keeping was not up to the job.

Tim Ambrose, the present incumbent, is both short on runs and showing a worrying inconsistency behind the stumps.

The obvious decision would be to cast him out as yet another failure but the problem facing England is who do they turn to next?