Swann revels in Test recall

Graeme Swann: back in the fold © Getty Images

In the end the prospect of Mark Ramprakash's return to international cricket proved a fraction too fanciful for the England selectors, but while his name may have been absent from the 15-man squad that was announced for the tour of Sri Lanka next month, Graeme Swann's was very much in situ. At the age of 28, and with seven-and-a-half years on the clock since his last appearance in an England Test squad, Swann's rehabilitation as an England cricketer is more than enough to satisfy the romantics.

He's not the first to have been brought in from the cold - his county colleague, Ryan Sidebottom, spent six years on the sidelines until his recall last summer - but he is perhaps the most notable. He was just 20 years old when he was named in Duncan Fletcher's very first squad, to South Africa in 1999-2000, and there he festered on the sidelines for three months, getting under his coach's skin to such an extent that - after a solitary wicketless ODI - he was banished for the remainder of Fletcher's reign.

After his one-day recall last month, however, Swann didn't remain wicketless for long. Seven key scalps in four games, and vital runs to boot, made his selection for the Test squad a no-brainer. With the hamstring tear that curtailed that trip recovering well, he is ready to resume a spin-bowling partnership with Monty Panesar that began during his Northamptonshire days.

"We played together literally five or six times," said Swann. "Monty at that time was the third spinner behind myself and Jason Brown. He won a game off his own back but he was still very raw - he'd bowl four unplayable balls [an over] and two terrible ones. Thankfully for English cricket those terrible balls have disappeared. His bowling has gone from strength to strength and it would be nice to bowl with him now."

Much the same can be said for Swann's own bowling. Though he has never bettered the haul of 57 wickets in the 1999 season that earned him selection for Fletcher's maiden tour, he considers himself a far superior bowler in his second coming as an international player.

"I sometimes look back and wonder how [I took wickets], but people hadn't seen me and didn't know anything about me," he said. "I bowled some dangerous balls but a lot of rubbish as well that picked up wickets. I think you find out the more you play and people know you, those rubbish balls go for four and six, rather than get caught at midwicket."

Panesar will begin the Test series as England's No. 1 spin option, but Swann firmly feels he's in with a chance of selection. But if he does have to sit on the sidelines, he has the valuable lesson of 1999-2000 to help him through the frustrations. "The main thing I've learned is you've got to be a lot more humble playing the game of cricket," he said. "As a cocksure 19-year-old with the world at my feet, I look back now and realise I wasn't good enough to play international cricket then. These past seven years have given me the experience and skills needed to be a success at international level."

In Swann's own opinion, his ostracism from the England set-up was harsh but fair. "I didn't perform well enough at county level after I got back, and if I'd been a selector I wouldn't have picked myself either," he said. "I like to think I've earned a place more than I did as a 19-year old, when I was handed it on the back of half a good season and a couple of good one-day games. Now I've had a couple of good seasons and performed well in all areas, which stands me in good stead."

As an offspinner, Swann's move to the seam-friendly Trent Bridge perhaps stunted his wicket-taking impact but it has encouraged him to develop his allround game. But there is one ally at Nottinghamshire who he'll be very glad to have on tour with him. His left-arm colleague Sidebottom, whose followthrough creates some very handy rough on an offspinner's length. With Chaminda Vaas also set to feature highly in the series, Swann is licking his lips at the possibilities.

"In the first game at Dambulla I bowled from the same end [as Sidebottom], and my first ball turned six to ten inches," said Swann. "But you take any help you can get, you'd be daft not to. I'm more effective as a spin bowler if there's rough on the wicket, so if Ryan and Chaminda both play, then there'll be all sorts of mess outside the righthander's off stump."

Come what may, Swann clearly recognises his role as an ambassador for county cricket. "I've been playing [in the Championship] for seven or eight years, and I've warranted selection," he said. "There are some superb cricketers out there who are also good enough to play. There'll be some people thinking: 'How the hell's he there?', but there'll also be some thinking: 'Let's emulate what he's done.'"

"I'm going out there hoping to play," he said. "Judging by the wickets we played on in the one-dayers, I'd like to think there'd be two spinners [involved]. I'd like to rekindle that partnership with Monty that was at a very embryonic stage at Northampton, and see where's it's progressed to."

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