Shah eager to seize second chance

The speed with which this summer's first Test has come around is almost unseemly in its haste, but for two members of England's squad, Thursday morning cannot come quickly enough. Matt Prior and Owais Shah endured months of frustration towards the end of Duncan Fletcher's regime - their faces, it seemed, just did not fit - but, as a season of transition gets underway, now is their chance to prosper.

Prior in particular is in a prime position, and he knows it. Hand-picked by the new England coach, Peter Moores, who was his wicketkeeping mentor from the age of 13 at Sussex, he is relishing the opportunity to establish himself in a role that has been inadequately filled since the retirement of Alec Stewart in 2003.

Geraint Jones and Chris Read fought each other to a standstill in the Ashes campaign before the 36-year-old Paul Nixon took over for the CB Series and World Cup. But at 25, Prior is precisely the right age to ensure that the latest passing of the baton is a more permanent appointment.

"It's exciting because I've really put a lot of time into my keeping," said Prior, who has played in 12 ODIs including 11 on last year's tour of the subcontinent, but has only once been included in his specialist role. "Everyone knows that years ago batting was always my first love and I knew I had to work hard at my keeping, but I can honestly say now that I have got it to as close to 50-50 as I could."

Prior's highest international score to date is the 45 he made against Pakistan at Lahore in December 2005. On that trip he was playing as a pinch-hitting opening batsman with a view to a World Cup role, but it proved detrimental to his talents and turned out to be a shortlived experiment. Now, however, the wicketkeeping role gives him a vital second string to his international bow.

"Not keeping almost takes half your game away," he explained. "It's nice that, with having two roles, if runs don't come on a certain day, you know you can put in that extra effort while keeping and get that buzz going in the field. I've played as a batter for Sussex so it's not a massive thing, but it is nice to have that full role. I'm really happy with how it's all gone and the amount of time I've put into my wicketkeeping - I love it as much as my batting now."

He loves a confrontation as well, and the West Indian batsmen can expect a similar level of chirp from behind the stumps as Nixon provided last month at Bridgetown. "I'm naturally fairly outspoken, especially on the pitch, and I do try to give off as much energy as possible," said Prior. "That's not necessarily through vocals or sledging or anything like that, but it is part of my game I enjoy and it is something I feel I can be quite good at as well.

"I love not only the keeping but also the role of wicketkeeper now, the man in the engine room trying to get those other ten men on the field buzzing around. We need to try and create that atmosphere of 11 players against two batters. Without having to say too much you can create quite an intense atmosphere and get in their faces."

While Prior's place is assured, Shah may yet have to wait a while longer to double his tally of Test caps - although the prognosis on Andrew Flintoff's ankle is such that he too may be donning his whites on Thursday morning. Either way, Shah is not fussed, he is merely content to be back in the reckoning after his bizarre ostracism after scoring 88 on debut and contributing to a famous victory in Mumbai last March.

"I've been in squads all my life, and you always prepare as if you're going to play," he said. "If you do that and get let down right at the end then at least you know you've done what you had to do. But my appearances for England have been very limited. I don't know what it was, but I definitely didn't get many chances."

Shah made his one-day debut against Australia in June 2001, in the early days of the Fletcher era, but has featured in just 18 matches in total. "Of course I felt let down," he said. "What the reason was I don't know. I'm not going to go around making judgments about why I wasn't picked. I was never given any feedback from England about why I wasn't picked, but you can't stay down for too long - otherwise you just go around moping around and thinking why am I not getting a chance.

"You have to see the problem, address it and then move forward," he added. "I was just thinking about getting some runs and keep knocking on the door - because they can't ignore you forever."