Trescothick does England a favour

September 6

Marcus Trescothick has the distinction, possibly unique in a major England career, of never once being dropped. So occasionally it falls to him to drop himself. The selectors, apparently, were planning to include him in the squad for the Champions Trophy in India, even though he has been batting like a lost soul. Not since Graham Thorpe was going through a bitter custody battle in 2002 has an England player been so visibly adrift. He is surely right to take a break and put his health first.

Trescothick's absence won't do England much harm. Like Graham Gooch in the mid-Eighties, he has gone from a pillar of the team to something more ambivalent; England need to see how they can do without him, as they did without Gooch, very nicely, in 1986-87. And his decision lets the selectors off a hook. England may be rubbish at one-day cricket at the moment, but it is strangely hard to break into their top five. Alastair Cook, who had a promising first couple of games in June, hasn't been able to force his way in since. Andrew Strauss let slip the other day, when he himself returned to the top of the order, that the plan was to give Ian Bell a run in the side at No 3, which meant that if Andrew Flintoff was to return as a specialist batsman, England would have had to leave out Paul Collingwood, who is part of the backbone of the team. Now, Flintoff can come in as a straight replacement for Trescothick.

He should even open the batting. He won't be knackered from bowling, the ball won't be seaming around, he will have the chance to play long innings, and this is the time to find out whether he can be something England have never had – a destructive, intimidating opener in the Gilchrist mould. The more sedate types who are really better suited to Test cricket (Strauss and Bell) will be free to play second fiddle, and the only other dasher, Kevin Pietersen, will have to start making big one-day runs again if he is to get the limelight he loves. Then all England will have to sort out is who the hell is going to bowl.

© Tim de Lisle 2006