Prior ready for England duty

Matt Prior says he will be ready to step in as a batsman - and not just a wicketkeeper - should England require him to do so on their tour of Pakistan in November. Prior, Sussex's wicketkeeper-batsman, knows he has been included in the Test squad as an understudy for Geraint Jones, but he says he would be able to replace a frontline batsman, too. He does not, however, expect to play if the first-choice players are fit.

"I want to make sure that if anyone slips up - and it doesn't have to be Geraint Jones, it could be one of the batsmen - then I will be 100 per cent ready to come in and perform," he told The Argus, a Brighton-based newspaper. "I'm completely prepared for the fact that I might go there and not play a single game. At the moment I'm more prepared for that than actually playing."

But Prior, 23, promised to seize any opportunity that comes his way. "This might be my one chance and if I don't get another one then I want to be able to look back, say I gave it 100 per cent and that I couldn't have done any more. If I don't play then that's because the team has done well. But I don't want to come home with regrets. I just want to work hard and when I think I can't work any more I will work even harder."

England squad Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Geraint Jones (wk), Simon Jones, Alex Loudon, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wk), Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett, Marcus Trescothick, Shaun Udal.