More Test cricket!Stewart under the spotlight as selectors prepare for first Test
Andrew Miller - 16 May 2003
Another Ashes drubbing has been and gone, and several old hands in the England Test team will be nervously contemplating their futures ahead of Saturday's announcement of the Test squad to face Zimbabwe at Lord's next week. A new English summer invariably brings calls for new blood, and predictably enough, one old stager will be the centre of all the headlines.
Ever since Ray Illingworth tried to do away with him in 1996, Alec Stewart has been the subject of perennial speculation. First there was indignation that he had displaced the much-loved Jack Russell as England's first-choice wicketkeeper. Then there was ageism as his 40th birthday came and went and still he wouldn't budge. But James Foster had an uninspired time behind the stumps in India and New Zealand last year, and though Stewart has volunteered to stand down from one-day internationals (without going so far as to retire, of course), the feeling persists that there is no-one yet worthy of filling his boots.
There is one man coming up the rails, however. Nottinghamshire's Chris Read is now 24, and a vastly improved player from the nervous rookie who ducked into a slower ball from Chris Cairns in 1999. He is the prime candidate to take Stewart's place, although Andrew Flintoff's untimely arm injury may yet earn Stewart a reprieve - with Craig White out for much of the season with a rib injury, there are few other allrounders capable of justifying a place.
If Stewart does play in his 127th Test, England will be fielding a wicketkeeper who is more than twice the age of his Zimbabwean counterpart - Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe's vice-captain, who turned 20 on Wednesday. All the more reason, therefore, to look to youth in other areas. England's top four of Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher (who scored a century in his last Test) and Nasser Hussain are immoveable, which means that Robert Key has to be given his opportunity to build on an impressive Ashes series, in which he displayed character in abundance and runs in moderation. It is tough luck on John Crawley, who did nothing much wrong in his latest return to the colours.
Another young shoo-in is Jimmy Anderson. Rod Marsh, England's new fourth selector, may have tried to play down the hype, saying that Anderson has been in the game "five minutes", but unfortunately he just refuses to stop taking wickets. On Wednesday he included his captain, Hussain, as the middle man in a hat-trick for Lancashire against Essex.
Anderson will bring some youthful exuberance to Lord's, alongside the elder statesman Andy Caddick, who took his first ten-for at Sydney in January, and probably the rapidly random seamers of Stephen Harmison. Matthew Hoggard, who didn't feature in the World Cup despite being part of the squad, might be given the opportunity to swing Zimbabwe into oblivion, while Ashley Giles's left-arm spin will be called upon if required.
Possible squad Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Robert Key, John Crawley, Andrew Flintoff, Alec Stewart (wk), Ashley Giles, Andy Caddick, Stephen Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, James Anderson.
