Irani's comeback hopes are crushed

David Lloyd13 April 2012

Ronnie Irani's hopes of a Test comeback on the ground where he won his last cap three years ago were surprisingly squashed by England's selectors today.

The 30-year-old Essex all-rounder was released from the squad 24 hours before the npower series-decider against India at the AMP Oval - and just 48 hours after he had made a day trip to Munich for some special, if somewhat bizarre sounding, treatment on his right knee.

Irani could not have been more upbeat about his fitness yesterday following an injection of hylart - a fluid extracted from that floppy 'crown' on the top of a cockerel's head.

But it was not the state of Irani's knee, which needed keyhole surgery two weeks ago, that persuaded England to send him back to county cricket. "It's purely a selection decision," said a spokesman.

Indeed, they may have come to the conclusion that a combination of Dominic Cork and Alex Tudor at Nos 7 and 8 is the way forward for this Fourth Test. It was thought England were leaning towards replacing hernia victim Andrew Flintoff with Irani as the key batting and bowling all-rounder. But that would have been asking a lot of Irani - and tough on Cork.

Essex's captain made a spectacular return to the national one-day side this summer. But it is Cork who has won Tests with the ball and played some important innings as well along the way.

Having selected 14 players at the weekend, England are keeping 13 on call. News that Michael Vaughan may need minor keyhole surgery to sort out a knee problem before the Ashes tour could be partly responsible for retaining the services of Kent opener Robert Key.

But there should be no problem about Vaughan playing tomorrow. It is more likely captain Nasser Hussain wants to make sure his other opener, Marcus Trescothick, remains 100 per cent confident, come tomorrow, of taking his only just mended left thumb into the most important match of the summer.

One man now ever present at The Oval, day and night, is Alec Stewart.

Stewart may have been fortunate to play in the summer's first Test against Sri Lanka. Now, nearly four months later, he cannot help but be a central figure on his home ground as England try to reclaim a series from India's grasp.

Stewart is influential as both batsman and wicketkeeper, having returned to the fold apparently better than ever following James Foster's injury enforced absence. But it is his presence above the AMP Oval - staring down from a giant advertising poster, 30 metres wide by 15 metres high, now attached to one of the famous gasholders - that will be inescapable for the next five days.

"I look forward to the Ashes coming home," are the words credited to him as he gazes across England's oldest Test venue.

But if captain Hussain has one message for the men under his command before start of play tomorrow then it is likely to be along the lines of: Forget Australia, forget the Ashes and concentrate on how we are going to beat India.

England (from): M Vaughan, M Trescothick, R Key, M Butcher, N Hussain (capt), J Crawley, A Stewart (wkt), D Cork, A Tudor, A Giles, A Caddick, M Hoggard, S Harmison.

India (from): V Sehwag, S Bangar, R Dravid, S Tendulkar, S Ganguly (capt), V Laxman, A Agarkar, A Ratra or P Patel (wkt), H Singh, A Kumble, Z Khan, A Nehra.

Umpires: D Orchard (SA), A De Silva (SL).

First Test (Lord's): England won by 170 runs.
Second Test (Trent Bridge): Drawn.
Third Test (Headingley): India won by an innings and 46 runs.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in