Sixth Test: Ramprakash is in position to prove himself (16 August 1997)

Saturday 16 August 1997

Sixth Test: Ramprakash is in position to prove himself

Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

ENGLAND`S selectors meet tonight to pick their side for next week`s Oval Test to solve a simple but familiar problem: too few runs and wickets. As with English cricket generally, there is no quick fix and among the names which will be passed through the verbal sieve this evening will be old, familiar ones like Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash, Angus Fraser, Peter Martin, Peter Such and Phil Tufnell.

There may, too, be a couple of new ones. Chris Adams, of Derbyshire, was the unlucky omission from the A team last winter after an outstanding season which included six first-class hundreds. He made an impressive 91 against the Australians early in a season which has not gone so well for him (682 first-class runs at 32 but five hundreds in all cricket) and dealt roughly with Shane Warne. He and Steve James, of Glamorgan, whose cause would certainly be aided by a hundred today, are the two batsmen of exceptional recent achievement not to have been tried so far.

James, who hit seven hundreds last year and leads the first-class averages by a distance this season - Australians included - deserves an opportunity without doubt but it is doubtful whether either he or Adams would be favoured by winning a first cap in the last Test of the season. It has proved fatal in the past, most recently to Alan Wells.

James`s chances of playing next week - as opposed to winning a tour place -are further reduced by the probability that Alec Stewart will continue to be preferred to Jack Russell as wicketkeeper. If so, it will be as an opener again. Even his sparkling 87 as a restored opener at Trent Bridge has left him, marginally, the least successful of the six specialist batsmen (the deposed Mark Butcher included) and he has missed several chances in the last three matches. But Stewart remains a good wicketkeeper; he prefers to open and Russell`s return will have to wait, I suspect, for a probable third tour of the West Indies.

If Ramprakash is to get a second tour there, the selectors will probably decide that they want to see him under pressure at the Oval first. Despite his unworthy Test average of 16 from 19 Tests, there is much in his favour now, including two good innings when he last played against Australia in Perth. Thirty eight first-class hundreds, a career average of 45, his immaculate technique and his obvious class all argue, too, for another chance on Thursday.

If so, it will probably be at No 6, with Adam Hollioake dropping down a place and his younger brother dropping out, in the certain knowledge that he will be back. Graham Thorpe was deemed to be the likely fall guy after England`s batting inadequacies before the last Test and proved at Trent Bridge how wrong it would be to drop him.

The same, I believe, applies to John Crawley now. It is true that he has failed in the first innings but it would be hard to argue that any of the alternatives, with the possible exceptions of Hick and Ramprakash, are batsmen of greater ability. If he is reprieved, the chances are that Nasser Hussain will bat at three.

The bowling options are even fewer, confused as they are by the injury to Darren Gough. He will be named in the party in the hope that his knee has recovered sufficiently to be risked in a five-day game on what may be a fairly unforgiving pitch, but Devon Malcolm will no doubt again be his reserve, with Dean Headley and Andrew Caddick the only two bowlers from the fifth Test who are certain to play again.

Martin is in fine form at present and there would be much to be said for a reliable, accurate bowler like him. No one, of course, fits that bill better than Fraser.

If the extra batsman is played - albeit against what is going to be a depleted Australian attack - there will again be room for only one spinner. Robert Croft has had a chastening season, culminating in his -L1,000 fine. Dropping him now, exactly a year ater his sparky debut against Pakistan, would be like kicking a man when he is down, especially as he bowled well without luck in the second innings at Nottingham.

Had Stewart not twice missed stumping Ricky Ponting off his bowling in the last two Tests, his miserable return of eight wickets at 54, albeit on unhelpful pitches, would look a bit better.

As a batsman, however, Croft has thoroughly let himself down, to the extent that if Tufnell or Such replaces him, it will make no difference to Glenn McGrath.

Such has at least as good a case as Tufnell, whose one five-wicket analysis against Australia has been followed by many a bruising experience, but Tufnell has been in the party for every Test to date without playing and this time he has a better chance of doing so.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)