England looks to Afzaal to quell Aussies

By Ted Corbett

BIRMINGHAM, JULY 4. Usman Afzaal, who has a growing reputation as a batsman full of runs and as a cricketer who will not back off, will play for England in the first Test at Edgbaston on Thursday. The selectors spent 24 hours taking soundings about who might get them out of the worst injury crisis of recent years and by common consent they have found their man.

Afzaal will be one of seven batsmen - as England draws the wagons in a tight circle - and gets his place ahead of Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood who were both preferred to him in the one-day international series last month. Mark Butcher and Robert Croft have been brought in too; Butcher as a third opener at No.3 and Croft to be told long there will be no room for a spinner.

England will play four seamers - Darren Gough, Andrew Caddick, Craig White and Dominic Cork - and if there is need for spin Afzaal, a left-hand bat and left arm slow bowler, will have to supply that too. He averages 37.28 batting this summer, and in his first class career he has scored six hundreds since 1995. He has 60 first-class wickets at nearly 60 runs each. If only he could field as well as he bats, bowls or talks back to opposing bowlers.

He is 6ft and he is, in the words of a straight-laced BBC radio assessment, ``feisty.'' Afzaal is from the Javed Miandad school of tact and diplomacy. If one of the Australians says ``boo'' he is likely to answer with a double boo. That ability to give as good as he gets at the height of battle may be his most important asset in a match the Australians start as clear favourites. At least one former Test batsman maintains he is the best of a decent crop of young batsmen.

Both his strength of character and his batsmanship will be fully tested. ``Everyone we speak to says that he is up for a scrap, a street fighter,'' says David Graveney, chairman of selectors. Afzaal may have been born in Rawalpindi, but he has been in this country since he was six, has thrown in his willingness to battle with England and he may be just the man for an Ashes dust-up. ``If I focus on my job I'll be fine,'' said Afzaal. ``I've played against Glenn McGrath at Worcester. I made 151 and 89. He's a good bowler.'' The tone was not patronising nor condescending but there was the hint of a god praising an ordinary mortal.

By any measure England is still in desperate trouble. It has two players who have had too little cricket: the captain Nasser Hussain and key all-rounder White. Michael Vaughan has dropped out to have keyhole surgery on his knee, Mark Ramprakash has gone home nursing a hamstring injury, Graham Thorpe has been sent away with a calf strain that is bleeding internally and Ashley Giles is recovering from tonsillitis. Expect the team to arrive in a fleet of ambulances.

Of course, if you listen carefully, you can hear the Australian smirks; they will arrive by Rolls Royce at least in their imagination. They announced their side on Monday and sent their coach John Buchanan out to say that they would have preferred to play against England's strongest team. Luckily, that will not wash with Afzaal, who is said to be impatient to ram such words back down the kangaroo throat.

Truly, the Ashes battle has begun.

The teams:

England (from): Nasser Hussain (captain), Michael Atherton, Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Alec Stewart, Usman Afzaal, Ian Ward, Craig White, Dominic Cork, Robert Croft, Darren Gough, Andrew Caddick, Matthew Hoggard.

Australia: Steve Waugh (captain), Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath.

Umpires: George Sharp and Steve Bucknor (West Indies). Match referee: Talat Ali.

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