Cricket: Rookies throw down challenge to senior hands

By DEREK PRINGLE

It is not known whether Nasser Hussain listens to Edith Piaf, but it must come as an enormous satisfaction to the England captain that the only regrets from the recent tour of India would have come from the four senior players who did not travel.

Risk is everywhere in life and although Alec Stewart, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Robert Croft each had their reasons for not going, the world has continued to turn without them - something one or two had clearly not banked on.

Indeed, as far as England cricket is concerned, it has begun to rotate on an orbit that takes it ever nearer to the Southern Hemisphere, where youth and team spirit are promoted over experience and self-interest.

Nothing has made the old guard a more endangered species than the mature and improving performances of wicketkeeper James Foster, fast bowler Matthew Hoggard and, with the ball at least, allrounder Andrew Flintoff.

Another fledgling, off-spinner Richard Dawson, remained impressively unfazed by his first taste of test cricket, though against India's spinfed batsmen he looked little more than a journeyman.

Instead of enjoying a traditional apprenticeship in county cricket, these young players are being fast-tracked in tests, a move that usually works only when sides are successful enough to cover the risk.

Without the big egos to contend with, and no former captains in the dressing-room to dilute Hussain and Duncan Fletcher's grand vision, a team was moulded in its leader's image - one that proved tough, disciplined and hard-working.

As a feisty captain, Hussain likes nothing more than to prove his critics wrong. But if he has the satisfaction of cocking a snook at all those who predicted a 3-0 whitewash, he cannot afford to over-romanticise his young team's achievement of outplaying India in the last two tests.

A combative New Zealand side beckons in March and after their recent strong showing against Australia, pragmatism would suggest a degree of forgiveness over those who stayed at home.

As a proven performer, Caddick, for one, will surely return.

Before they made their decision to stay at home in the wake of the September 11 atrocities, both he and Croft were told that, unlike Gough and Stewart (who had said some weeks before the twin towers came crashing down that they did not want to go to India), missing the trip to the subcontinent would not affect their eligibility for the New Zealand tour.

However, the selectors also made it clear that anyone who favoured the hearth over Harbhajan ran the risk that replacements might keep their places.

With grassier pitches more likely, the balance of the squad for New Zealand will be different, with an extra seamer replacing Martyn Ball, one of three spinners picked for India.

Whether Croft should come in for Dawson will not be hotly debated by the selectors, not if the continuity and loyalty, of which they constantly speak, is upheld.

Although Croft bowled well in New Zealand last time England toured, a spinner's real worth is measured on the subcontinent, which is why he probably gambled that his stock would rise more out of the team than in. It has not and Dawson, although a rookie, has both the potential and a better line in repartee on his side.

With the emphasis on hitting the seam rather than the batsman, Caddick will return to the country of his birth to open the bowling with Matthew Hoggard.

Both should be kept keen by Gough's efforts in the two one-day series that precede it, and it will be interesting to see how the contrary Caddick copes with an opening partner whose reputation, with nine test wickets on flat Indian pitches, is growing by the spell.

Fletcher tends to favour players who either hit the ball hard, spin it big or bowl fast.

News from the Academy side in Adelaide is that Durham's Steve Harmison is doing the last, which is why he could be added to the squad, probably at Richard Johnson's expense.

Johnson, who managed just one warm-up game in India, may not be the only original pick to miss out on the tour. Flintoff's impressive spells with the ball, as revelatory as his batting was poor, have lessened the need for James Ormond.

With the squad for New Zealand to be named shortly, Graham Thorpe must now decide whether he wants to tour, following the recent split with his wife.

As England's best but most elusive batsman of the past few years, a motivated Thorpe should serve Hussain well against New Zealand's cagey bowling attack.

He would also continue to provide that bridge of quality and experience that all young sides need if they are to keep improving.

- INDEPENDENT