Five of AOC’s prospective England XI will get a chance to enhance their international credentials this week when England Lions take on Sri Lanka, as the tourists continue their warm-up ahead of the first Test on May 26.
It would most likely have been seven but for injuries to Craig Kieswetter and Chris Woakes who were unavailable due to a leg and shin injuries respectively, but James Hildreth, Jimmy Adams, Ravi Bopara, Jade Dernbach and James Taylor will all have the chance to impress Andy Flower and co in a four-day match beginning at the County Ground in Derby on Thursday.
Of the quintet, Bopara looks the man most likely to line-up at Cardiff in the first Test and will be vying with his Lions teammate Eoin Morgan for the vacant slot in England’s middle-order. The Essex batsman has recovered from a shaky start to the season to post centuries in each of his last two Championship outings, as well as notching two fifties in the CB40.
Having toured Australia as the batting understudy last winter Morgan still has the edge but if Bopara can outscore the Middlesex left-hander, who is yet to play a first-class match this season, he could well be rewarded for his decision to turn down the IPL in order to stake his claim for a Test spot.
Leicestershire middle-order man Taylor is another who has done his chances no harm whatsoever with a strong start to the season in all competitions but he will need to score heavily if he is to leapfrog his rivals, while Hildreth’s patchy early season form for Somerset has seen him slip down the reckoning for now.
Hampshire’s Adams will be reliant on an injury to incumbent openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook if he is to get a look in and Surrey paceman Dernbach will have to wait for the ODI series that follows the Test series to make his international bow.
Of our other four team members, Yorkshire’s Adil Rashid will be the most disappointed to miss out on the Lions squad after he was overlooked in favour of Hampshire’s 20-year-old slow left-armer Danny Briggs.
Briggs, who has 18 Championship wickets this season (two less than his rivals Rashid and Monty Panesar) continues to make giant strides and, two years after making his international debut, Rashid must fear he is losing ground in the race to establish himself as England’s second-choice spinner.
Tykes duo Andrew Gale and Adam Lyth can have few complaints about their omissions after modest starts to the season but the latest recruit to our XI, Glamorgan’s James Harris, can consider himself unfortunate not to be included after taking 27 wickets in all competitions.
