Fletcher pours cold water on Thorpe return

The door on Graham Thorpe's international career has not been slammed shut, but yesterday's comments from Duncan Fletcher made it clear that his return to England colours is not the certainty many assumed it would be.

Thorpe, 33, has been absent from the England side since he withdrew from international cricket last summer because of his much-publicised personal problems. But he has started this season in good form, and has said that he once again wants to be considered by the selectors.

With Jim Troughton and Robert Key failing to impress so far in the one-dayers, Fletcher was asked whether he had thought about bringing back Thorpe to bolster the middle order.

"It's nice to have experience," Fletcher admitted, before quickly making it clear that he wanted to give the younger players their chance. "Do you go back to picking the best players or do you prefer the young guys who you hope will be around in four years' time at the World Cup?" Pressed on the matter, Fletcher confessed that the new faces had "got to learn quickly".

Fletcher also dismissed a familiar question - should the captain bat at No. 3? It used to be Nasser Hussain who was under the spotlight, and now after four matches in charge it is Michael Vaughan's position in the batting order which is being questioned. "I'm happy with Vaughan at three," Fletcher said. "He's got in, played some good shots. I don't think it would make any difference."

Vaughan himself, however, was not so quick to rule out the idea. "I'll discuss that with the coach and maybe that could be an option," he told reporters. "It's very disappointing that I'm not in there and scoring a lot of runs, but I feel I'm hitting the ball OK and I'm just making that one little mistake and it's costing me my wicket at the minute."

In four innings in ODIs so far this summer Vaughan has scored 79 runs at 19.75 with a top score of 29.