Graveney to sound out Trescothick

Marcus Trescothick has been in the runs this season © Getty Images

Marcus Trescothick's return to international cricket could come a step closer this week when David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, speaks to him about being available for the Twenty20 World Championships in South Africa.

Trescothick hasn't played for England since mid-way through last season's one-day series against Pakistan. After the third match at The Rose Bowl he announced he wouldn't be available for the Champions Trophy. However, he was selected for the Ashes tour before having to return home two weeks into the trip.

Since then he's returned to action for Somerset and has struck 715 runs at 65 in the County Championship including a career-best 284 against Northamptonshire. With England's top-order struggling in one-day cricket the calls for Trescothick's recall have been growing louder, but there has been understandable caution from all parties.

Trescothick was named in the England Performance Squad at the start of the summer, but now though the selectors' hands are going to be forced because a 30-man preliminary squad for the Twenty20 needs to be named by Wednesday.

Graveney told the Mail on Sunday: "We have to name our preliminary squad by Wednesday. We want to be able to consider Marcus and I will be contacting him to find out where he stands."

Peter Moores, the England coach, added: "Watch this space. Marcus is a very good one-day player and when we announce that 30, if he's in it, you will know the time is right for him to come back in."

England's series defeat against West Indies again highlighted how much they miss Trescothick's experience in the top order. In 123 ODIs he has 12 centuries; the England side at Trent Bridge had nine in total, split between two players - Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood.

England shared the Twenty20 series against West Indies 1-1 and Moores said he hadn't ruled out drafting in specialist players who have succeeded in county cricket.

"The challenge with the schedules is fitting everything in but we will pick what we think is the best team to win that tournament," he said. "We will be very keen to go there and win it and that could be a mixture, it could be the same team, we are moving on all the time with those discussions.

Names such as Darren Maddy and Mal Loye have been mentioned for the top order while a number of spinners, including Leicestershire's Jeremy Snape and Surrey's Nayan Doshi have been successful.

"The first job is to pick the 30 players we can select those from," added Moores. "If you are a good one-day player you are going to become a good Twenty20 player. When you shorten games it just tends to heighten the skill levels needed. People say Twenty20 is a bit of a lottery but it is certainly not a lottery, it is a skillful game that you need a high level of skill to be successful in."

The trip to South Africa would last a maximum of 16 days if England reach the final and it starts on September 11, three days after the final ODI against India. England's first match is against Zimbabwe, in Cape Town, on September 13.