Shah wants 'a fair crack at Tests'

Owais Shah believes he has "not had a fair crack at Tests" and admits that frustrations are beginning to grow having played two Tests in the last four years. Shah, 29, last played a Test in 2007, against West Indies as injury cover, and was not recalled after two failures. His debut had come 18 months earlier, when he made 88 in India.

"In the last four years I would like to have thought I would get a better crack at Test cricket," he told the Independent. "I don't think I have had a fair crack. I want to look back and say, 'They gave me an opportunity'. That's all I want. I do get frustrated that it hasn't worked out yet."

He has enjoyed a flying start to his summer with a century and a fifty in the Championship, and 72 for the MCC against Sussex. He has a further chance to impress in the England Lions side for New Zealand's final warm-up before their first Test the following week.

Shah is convinced that he will make it one day, but for now he accepts his place as an understudy. "I look on it as a journey to perhaps getting a go one day," he said. "I do believe my time will come, it's an up-and-down sort of journey but I'll get there. I've just got to keep scoring runs and maybe I'll get an opportunity."