Robson rediscovers touch as tepid draw sets in

As the opening salvos of another Ashes battle were being fired in Cardiff, you would be surprised if it had not crossed the mind of Sam Robson that had things gone somewhat differently last year then he could have been striding out to the middle alongside Alastair Cook to take his Australian brothers as an established England batsman.

The Sydney-born batsman, having thought long and hard before committing his international future to England, was rewarded for his decision last summer but fell out of favour almost as rapidly as he had gained it. After scoring a composed hundred in only his second Test, against Sri Lanka at Headingley, he followed up with 59 in the opening match against India at Trent Bridge only for his fortunes to decline.

In his next six Test innings, he had a top score of 37 and was ultimately perceived as one of the few batsmen not to cash in against a mediocre Indian attack, and moreover with a weakness outside off stump, which saw him caught in the slip cordon five times. He has not been selected since.

This season his form has been patchy. He made 178 against Durham at Lord's in early May but take that out and his average going into this match was below 20. Therefore, the unbeaten 77 which ensured that Middlesex left a damp and chilly Trent Bridge with a draw was a hint that better is to come. He was dropped on eight - a routine chance, it has to be said, spilled at slip by Steven Mullaney in not the first dropped catch of the game by Nottinghamshire - but otherwise looked solid and in control.

"I'm playing quite well but I need to put more scores on the board consistently," he said afterwards. "It was good to get a few hours out in the middle today and hopefully I can take that forward."

He admits he was left disappointed by losing his England place after the India series but denies that he looks back with any sense that his chance to forge an international career has gone.

"I don't look back on my England experience last summer as a failure," he said. "To come out of my seven Tests with a hundred and a fifty, I feel like I know what I have to do at that level and it is just a case of doing it more consistently.

"If I do get another chance I will be a better player when it comes up. I was disappointed when I got left out but there's no point in feeling sorry for yourself.

"I have worked hard on what I need to do in terms of improving areas of weakness. Hopefully I can continue to improve each year as I have in each of the last six or seven years.

"I was not particularly thinking about what was happening in Cardiff when I went out this morning. But every time there is a Test match on and you have played at that level it just drives you on and makes you more hungry to get back there again."

The fate of this match was probably cast long before the fourth day began but if it were not a drizzly, dank morning in which only 20 minutes play were possible made the draw inevitable.

The only wicket to fall was that of James Harris, who had been sent in to open as nightwatchman on Tuesday evening and played pretty soundly before he was leg before to Harry Gurney, playing back when he should have been forward. He escaped a censure from umpires Russell Evans and Ben Debenham despite gesturing angrily towards Debenham when he was given out, clearly feeling he had hit the ball.

A reprimand would have soured an otherwise fine match for the 25-year-old Welshman, who seems close to recovering the standing among fast bowlers he enjoyed a couple of years ago, before England encouraged him to tinker with his action in a quest to find extra pace.

Like Robson, he is driven by an ambition to prove himself at the highest level. James Franklin, the Middlesex captain, believes he might yet get there.

"He is still pretty young," Franklin said. "He is already on 52 Championship wickets with still six games to go so there is a real possibility he could end up with 70 to 80 Championship wickets, which would be an amazing season.

"Combine that with the runs he is scoring and his name has to be up there in lights in front of the selectors.

"There are still bits and bobs where he does not quite click with his bowling action which I guess is down to the last couple of years of him trying to change it.

"This year he has gone back to what he used to do and he is getting results again. The full cycle has yet to be completed but there is much more good than bad in what he is doing."

Franklin conceded that Yorkshire will take some catching in the Championship table, in which Middlesex are now second with the points they take from this match, but does not believe the contest is decided.

"At some stage you would hope they could be pegged back a bit and hopefully other teams can take points off them while others gain momentum elsewhere," he said.

"Sure, Yorkshire have got the ball in their court at the moment but there is still a heck of a lot of cricket to play, six or seven rounds, so that's potentially 120 points out there for any team if they want it."