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Rajasthan Royals have picked four players from the Rajasthan Ranji squad as a part of their uncapped basket. Aakash Chopra is the most prominent name among the pickings

Nagraj Gollapudi and Abhishek Purohit11-Jan-2011Rajasthan Royals have picked four players from the Rajasthan Ranji squad and Mumbai batsman Ajinkya Rahane as a part of their uncapped basket. Aakash Chopra is the most prominent name among the Rajasthan players signed with the other three being middle-order batsman Ashok Menaria, seamer Deepak Chahar and wicketkeeper Dishant Harendra Yagnik. Along with Chopra, who moved to Rajasthan as a professional from his home state of Delhi this season, both Menaria and Chahar’s spectacular performances helped Rajasthan reach the Ranji Trophy final after 36 years.Rahane has been a prolific scorer in domestic cricket, and averages 69.01 from 47 first-class games, and 40.41 from 43 List A matches. He was a crucial factor in Mumbai’s 38th and 39th Ranji title wins, making 1089 and 809 runs.”We are pretty happy with what we have got,” Sean Morris, the Rajasthan franchise’s CEO, said. Morris also explained how Chopra, a former India Test opener, was an uncapped player. “According to the IPL rules if a player has not played for India in the last five seasons he automatically becomes uncapped,” he said. Chopra, who played the first two IPL seasons with Kolkata Knight Riders, confirmed the development.Meanwhile Rajasthan’s Ranji captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar has been approached by Kochi. “We are talking to him,” Mehul Shah, one of the Kochi owners said. It is also understood that Pune Warriors have come to an agreement with Kamran Khan, the left-arm fast bowler who played for Rajasthan in the second IPL, but was sent back midway during the campaign to correct his action, which was found to be questionable.Kolkata Knightriders have sent in “10-12” requests to IPL for players they would be interested in. Royal Challengers Bangalore were negotiating with hometown boy Mayank Agarwal, who was part of the India Under-19 World Cup team last year.The Baroda Ranji side has attracted attention as well, with captain Pinal Shah, left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt, allrounder Swapnil Singh, batsman Kedar Devdhar and seamer Murtuja Vahora said to be in advanced stages of discussions with some franchises.Two days after the auction, all ten franchises have been frantically hunting for quality uncapped players, a scarce commodity in Indian cricket. Various team owners rushed to Baroda hours after the weekend auction to woo players like Ambati Rayudu, one of the performers in IPL 2010 and a vital part of Mumbai Indians’ run to the final.The buzz at the Moti Bagh ground was in contrast to the Ranji semi-final, which was played at the Reliance Stadium in Baroda, watched mostly by journalists, a handful of spectators, and a few stray dogs. Not that the cricket so far has been attractive enough to drive fans to the ground, but the rush among the IPL franchises to sign uncapped domestic players suddenly turned the spotlight on a domestic match.Siddhartha Mallya, owner of Bangalore, checked in on Monday morning as teams were getting ready for the final net season before the final day. While Mallya was one of the early IPL birds to arrive in Vadodara, there are reports that many more are headed to the city which is home to Chirayu Amin, head of the IPL governing council, and also the president of the Baroda Cricket Association. Among those expected to arrive tomorrow are Manoj Badale, co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals, Ness Wadia, co-owner of the Kings XI Punjab, and Geoff Lawson, coach of the Kochi team. Amin himself was at the ground today, and apparently it was one of the extremely rare occasions on which the president has been seen at a domestic match in Vadodara.

The South Australia Redbacks’ spinners strangled the Queensland Bulls to reclaim top spot on the Big Bash table with a 10-run win at the Adelaide Oval

The Bulletin by Alex Malcolm20-Jan-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsCallum Ferguson used finesse rather than power in his valuable 38•Getty Images

The South Australia Redbacks’ spinners strangled the Queensland Bulls to reclaim top spot on the Big Bash table with a 10-run win at the Adelaide Oval.The Bulls were always chasing the game after the coin fell Michael Klinger’s way. Despite the Redbacks captain falling in the first over to 30-year-old debutant Brad Ipson, a duet of Daniels in Harris and Christian thumped 88 off 50 balls to get the home side away to a flier. Christian’s 25-ball cameo of 41 was good enough to earn him the Man-of-the-Match award on a surface that got harder to bat on as the night wore on.Once the Bulls realised the sluggish nature of the dry pitch, they were able to claw their way back through a superb spell from offspinner Chris Simpson. He took career-best figures of 3 for 17, including the wickets of Harris and the danger man Kieron Pollard in the same over, to put the breaks on the Redbacks innings.Callum Ferguson, unperturbed by the broken nose he suffered against Western Australia, came in and played very intelligently to nudge the total up to 6 for 159. Ferguson’s unbeaten 38 off 27 featured only one four and one six, but it was his placement and running between the wickets which were the highlight, showing finesse can often be a substitute for power.The Bulls did not heed the lessons of Ferguson’s play. After Michael Lumb clubbed 24 in three overs, he kept swinging for the fence, running at offspinner Nathan Lyon and missing to gift Graham Manou a stumping. Chris Simpson fell in the same vein five balls later, before two became three when the Bulls skipper James Hopes heaved against the spin of Aaron O’Brien only to be caught off the leading edge at backward point.One of South Australia’s finest players of spin, now Queensland Twenty20 coach, Darren Lehmann was left shaking his head as the middle order made a hash of playing Adil Rashid (2 for 26) and O’Brien (2 for 27).When Nathan Reardon was needlessly run out for 18, with just under 6 overs remaining, the game was dead and buried. Ben Cutting cut loose late, hitting powerfully to make 23 not out in 13 balls, but it only would have added to the bitter taste in Queensland mouths, knowing they came within 10 runs having played so far below their best.The Redbacks now press on to face Tasmania in a top-of-the-table clash on Monday. They will have to make do without their star import, Pollard, who leaves for the Caribbean ahead of the World Cup.The Bulls have three fixtures left to try and conjure a finals berth.

Ireland are out of the World Cup after losing to South Africa, but their captain William Porterfield says he is proud of the performances his team have put in during the tournament

Firdose Moonda at Eden Gardens15-Mar-2011An Irish journalist, one who has followed the team through their various divisions, arrived at Eden Gardens with hope in his heart, but reality in his head. “It’s not like the last time,” he said. “Then you only had to win one of our three games to get to the next round; now even if you win three games you are not assured of a place in the knockouts.”The “then” he was referring to was the 2007 World Cup, when Ireland’s stunning win over Pakistan, and later Bangladesh, shook the cricketing world. So surprising was their performance that it may have played some part in the 2011 tournament structure. The two groups of seven, with the next round being the quarterfinals, is a format designed to send the Full Members through to the knockouts and the Associates home.By its very foundation, this edition of the World Cup was built to disadvantage the smaller teams. If they wanted to challenge the system, it would require a consistent effort over a month of competition, in which they would face four Test playing nations. It means that they wouldn’t be rewarded for one case of luck; they’d need to show that good fortune is matched with good skills and that they are able sustain their intensity over a period of time.Ireland were the one Associate that stood a chance of doing that. After pushing Bangladesh to within 27 runs of a loss, they beat England, gave a respectable account of themselves against India and lost a by a margin of less than 50 runs against West Indies. Their last chance to qualify for the quarterfinals was to beat South Africa, a task as daunting as they get, and after a crushing 131-run defeat, the sparks they lit at the tournament have been put out. They still have a match to play, but it will have no impact on whether they qualify for the knockouts. The dream is over, but there is time for reflection on the highlights.Porterfield was a proud man despite the weaknesses his side displayed.•Getty Images

“We knew today was a final for us in terms of keeping hopes alive for qualifying,” William Porterfield, the Ireland captain said. “We’ve done a lot of good things in this tournament. The result against England stands out, but the way we bowled and fielded throughout the tournament, especially our ground fielding has been right up there with anyone.”Ireland’s commitment was on display again on Tuesday, when they threw their bodies around Eden Gardens from ball one, when Gary Wilson prevented a run from being scored. The effort they put into cutting off the run flow was undone by the two catches they dropped and it’s that kind of consistency that Ireland lack.They’ve been able to play well for periods of matches, but only once, against England, did the whole package come together. Issues of finishing, both with bat and ball, are some of the concerns they need to address, and Porterfield spoke about wasted opportunities.”We got ourselves into a lot of winning positions. In the game against the West Indies we were right in the game. We should have won the game against Bangladesh in the end too.”
Against South Africa, they had big name opposition with their backs against the wall at 117 for 5 but then let them accumulate 272.Porterfield was not unhappy with the bowling, even though they did not bowl South Africa out, saying that he was satisfied with the effort they made to take more wickets. “Boyd [Rankin] came back; he is our principle wicket-taker. We wouldn’t have done things very differently. We weren’t too distraught at half-time.”Their chase, dented by wickets, is what Porterfield thinks should have gone better. “Throughout the tournament, we formed a few good partnerships but we never backed up one partnership with a second.” Their highest partnership against South Africa was 41 runs, between Kevin O’Brien and Gary Wilson, but they have had two century partnerships, against England and India, in the tournament.Porterfield was a proud man despite the weaknesses his side displayed. He felt his team had played with a lot of heart and that they will benefit from the experience as a whole. “The more we play against [big] teams, the more we are learning as a unit. We are going to take a lot out of this tournament.”Their last match, on Friday against the Netherlands, will be their last hurrah, for this World Cup and possibly for a long time, as the fifty-over tournament will become smaller from the next edition. That match, which is all about playing for pride, will have a much deeper context to it, because the two teams that meet may disappear from the ODI stage for an indefinite period. “It’s not going to be difficult to get the guys up for it,” Porterfield said. “It’s probably the first match we are going into as favourites.”

Shoaib Akhtar may well have played his last match for Pakistan, after he
wasn’t picked for the semi-final against India in Mohali

Osman Samiuddin in Mohali30-Mar-2011Shoaib Akhtar may well have played his last match for Pakistan, after he
wasn’t picked for the semi-final against India in Mohali. Despite the
customary speculation surrounding his participation before each game ever
since he announced his international retirement (before the group game
against Australia), Pakistan chose an unchanged line-up from the
quarter-final win against West Indies in Dhaka. That means Wahab Riaz
retains his place.The question of Shoaib’s inclusion was the subject of considerable
discussion within the team management in the build-up to the game.
Essentially it came down to Shoaib’s fitness to last an entire innings –
and multiple spells – but his big-game experience weighed up against
Riaz’s freshness and inexperience, but importantly, the variation he
provides as a left-arm paceman. On Tuesday evening, they opted for the
latter. The team were also keen to stick as much as possible with the same XI throughout the tournament.The issue was confused by comments made by Afridi in the pre-match press
conference, in which he said, “Shoaib is not 100% but he is trying his
level best. We will decide this evening.” That was widely interpreted to
mean that he was carrying an injury or wasn’t fit enough to play this
game, but it is the line that Pakistan have trotted out throughout the
tournament and it relates to his general fitness levels, rather than a
specific injury.Both Afridi and coach Waqar Younis have talked repeatedly of Shoaib not
being at optimum fitness levels, though he has still played three group
games, picking up three wickets. Their concerns grew after he struggled to
bowl his last over against New Zealand, the 47th of the innings, which
ultimately went for 28 runs.Until that over, however, he had bowled well without much luck, knocking
over Brendan McCullum in his first over before seeing centurion Ross
Taylor missed twice in three balls in his second spell. He hasn’t played a
game since. Earlier in the tournament, incidentally, when asked about his
fitness, Shoaib said that he had played much of his career not entirely
fit.Sources within the team management admitted the decision to exclude Shoaib
had upset him considerably. He believes he is fit enough to play and that
his experience of big games should have seen him in the line-up. He bowled
in the pre-match warm-ups and looked to be running in as he has through
the last year.The occasion of the match, and missing out on it, will also have upset
him. Shoaib has always enjoyed the rivalry with India, from his Eden
Gardens introduction in 1998-99 even through the World Cup Centurion game
and he remains one of the most popular Pakistani cricketers in India.

ESPNcricinfo previews the IPL match between Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Rajasthan Royals in Indore

The Preview Siddhartha Talya14-May-2011

Match facts

Friday, May 15, Indore
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Shane Watson has yet to dominate•AFP

Big Picture

Both teams are still in it theoretically, but a defeat will certainly send them out of the IPL this season. With mixed returns in this campaign overall, and at least two successive defeats marring their recent run, both Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Rajasthan Royals have been left hanging by a thread.Rajasthan, in their previous game against the in-form Royal Challengers Bangalore, were humbled after posting 146, while Kochi will be disappointed they didn’t defend 176; they were outdone by an enterprising innings from Dinesh Karthik.Both have two games in hand, and need to win both to entertain hopes of staying. While those wins might not ensure qualification, given the teams’ low net run-rates and that the current top four look good to remain there, they’ll end their respective campaigns on a high. For Rajasthan, it’ll mark a satisfactory end to Shane Warne’s reign as player, coach and captain. Likewise for Kochi in their first season following a turbulent build-up.

Form guide (most recent first)

Kochi Tuskers Kerala: LLWWL (seventh on points table)
Rajasthan Royals: LLLWW (fifth on points table)

Team talk

It could be worth bringing Ranji star Deepak Chahar into the playing XI. He hasn’t got a game this season, and could be an option in place of Pankaj Singh, who was expensive in Rajasthan’s previous game.B Akhil has had just one game for Kochi this season and could be given a go. Jayawardene has said his team could go in with a four-pronged pace attack.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team Selector.

In the spotlight

Shane Watson: He’s had starts this season at the top of the order, but hasn’t really been dominating as he’s capable of being. He looked in good nick against Bangalore in his previous match, making 34, and needs to push on for more.Brendon McCullum: He’s had a better IPL than Watson, but in the last few games, like his opening rival, has not dug in after the early bursts. He made a quick 32 in Kochi’s previous game, 22 before that and smashed it around for 37 against Delhi Daredevils. He and Watson have similar goals to meet.

Prime numbers

• Rajasthan Royals have had the least number of team fifties this season, with just three in 12 games. Kochi Tuskers Kerala are second from bottom with four
• Rajasthan, as a team, have also struck the least fours and sixes – 128 and 32. Kochi have fared far better – 151 fours and 43 sixes until now

The chatter

“We’ve often been 20-odd runs short of where we should’ve been. McCullum plays the way he does and sometimes gets out early. If we have some partnerships in the middle overs, we could end with 15 or 20 more runs, which could make all the difference.”

Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, has been signed by Pune Warriors as a replacement for Ashish Nehra

ESPNcricinfo staff03-May-2011Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, has been signed by Pune Warriors as a replacement for Ashish Nehra, who was ruled out for the remainder of the 2011 season with a finger injury. Ganguly’s contract is for a period of one year and is an IPL lifeline to the batsman after he went unsold at the player auction in January, where his base price was $400,000.Ganguly will be vice-captain to Yuvraj Singh and is likely to join the Pune squad ahead of their match against Mumbai Indians at the DY Patil Stadium on May 4.”We were waiting for Ashish Nehra’s fitness report and ultimately the report came yesterday,” Abhijit Sarkar, Pune’s team director, told PTI. “I was already in talks with Ganguly and we decided that the amount of experience that Sourav has in cricket will no doubt help the team. So we finalised Ganguly last night.”He is playing in IPL not for money but to prove a point. Our team think-tank felt that Sourav Ganguly is the best possible option available so we went for him. He has been a fighter and a master of comebacks. We are very much confident that he will prove his worth.”Ganguly played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the first three seasons of the IPL and led the team in two of them, while Brendon McCullum was captain for the other. Kolkata fared poorly in those years and are the only franchise not to make the semi-finals. Kolkata did not bid for Ganguly in January despite his name coming up for sale twice, as they revamped their squad entirely, and the batsman later refused a mentoring role with the franchise.Pune Warriors are bottom of the ten-team league at present, having lost six consecutive matches after winning their first two. Ganguly has an average IPL record – 1031 runs at an average of 28 and strike-rate of 110 – and could strengthen an under-performing and short batting order.

Suresh Raina, who is India’s captain for the limited-overs leg of the tour of West Indies, admitted there will be huge expectations from his team despite the absence of some big names, and has said he was looking forward to the challenge

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jun-2011Suresh Raina, who is India’s captain for the limited-overs leg of the tour of West Indies, has admitted there will be huge expectations from his team despite the absence of some big names.”[Being captain] is a great challenge to me and I’m really looking forward to that,” Raina said on the team’s arrival in the Caribbean. “We have good players who want to do well in this series. They have done well in first-class cricket and the IPL or in the World Cup team.”For the ODIs, India will be without regular captain MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, and Zaheer Khan, who have been rested, while Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag miss out through injury or illness. Dhoni and Zaheer are set to return for the Tests, but the other seniors are set to miss the entire series. The tour will also be Duncan Fletcher’s first assignment with the Indian side.Raina said the senior players “deserved a break” and was hopeful the youngsters in the squad would make the most of the opportunity. “We have a young team here and they are focussed on doing well for India and I am excited to see how they perform over the next few weeks.”West Indies lost their recent ODI series to Pakistan and will once again be without opener Chris Gayle, who was the top run-getter in the IPL, but has been left out for the first two ODIs. When India last played ODIs in the West Indies in 2006, they lost 1-4. The two teams subsequently met in the World Cup earlier this year when India won by 80 runs in Chennai, en route to their tournament triumph. Raina, however, said India would not be complacent. “The West Indies team has been playing good cricket for the past few months and we are not going to take them lightly,” he said.The only Twenty20 game will be played on Saturday at Port of Spain, while the five-match ODI series begins at the same venue on June 6.Meanwhile West Indies beat the High Performance Centre (HPC) team by 11 runs in a practice Twenty20 game in Couva on Thursday. Batting first, West Indies were restricted to 145 in their 20 overs on what appeared to be a good batting pitch. Opener Lendl Simmons carried on his good form from the Pakistan series, top-scoring with a rapid 43, while Danza Hyatt made 22.Uncapped left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie, who has been picked in the Twenty20 squad, and Christopher Barnwell shared two wickets apiece as HPC were restricted to 134 for 6. Wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Dowrich was their mainstay with 52 off 41 balls.

Tamim Iqbal, the Bangladesh batsman, will get his first taste of county cricket after signing for Nottinghamshire as a short-term replacement for David Hussey

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jun-2011Tamim Iqbal, the Bangladesh batsman, will get his first taste of county cricket after signing for Nottinghamshire as a short-term replacement for David Hussey.Hussey has to return to Australia to prepare for the ODI series against Sri Lanka and will play his final Friends Life t20 game for Nottinghamshire against Lancashire on June 26. Tamim will then play six FLt20 fixtures, provided he gets clearance from the Bangladesh Cricket Board.”David Hussey has been excellent for us and he still has a lot to offer to the Australian team,” said Nottinghamshire coach Mick Newell. “His contract with us was always subject to international commitments and I’m pleased that we have been able to secure a quality replacement.”Tamim, 22, has a Test average of 40.13 and scored five fifties in six innings against England including centuries at Lord’s and Old Trafford last summer.”Finding quality overseas players at short notice is always a challenge but we are very pleased to have agreed a deal with a player of Tamim’s quality,” said Newell. “He’s an exciting player who has established himself on the international scene at a young age and he is already assured of a long Test career.”Tamim has made no secret of his desire to play cricket in England and was understandably delighted to be offered the chance. “It has been a dream come true in every sense as I have longed to play county cricket ever since I became a professional cricketer,” he said.”I have enjoyed every moment whenever I have been in the UK in the past and it is a privilege to be part of such a great club like Nottinghamshire, which has an awe-inspiring tradition and character.”I am very excited to take the field and perform and help with Notts’ mission of winning the Friends Life t20. As the second Bangladeshi in county cricket, it is also an honour for me and I hope to live up to the expectations of the club and the fans.”Meanwhile, Adam Voges has been awarded the FLt20 captaincy and will remain with Nottinghamshire at least until the end of the group stage of the competition.

Gary Kirsten’s support staff, Russell Domingo and Allan Donald, have been preparing South Africa’s new season that begins in October

Firdose Moonda01-Aug-2011The first few letters of the latest chapter in Gary Kirsten’s coaching career will be written on Monday when the former India coach officially starts work in his home country, South Africa. Kirsten’s contract, and that of his assistant Russell Domingo, comes in to effect on August 1, but they will have a gentle easing in to their new jobs.The national team, who are in the middle of a seven-month break from the game, will only convene in four weeks’ time, effectively giving Kirsten more time to devise strategies. “We will have a camp towards the end of August where we will be workshopping ideas for the new season,” Allan Donald, South Africa bowling coach told ESPNCricinfo. “There will probably be no cricket played in that time, just a lot of planning.”Donald has not had the same break as Kirsten and Domingo have, and started work a month ago, when he went with the A-team to Zimbabwe. Donald travelled as the assistant to his predecessor Vincent Barnes, who now works as High Performance coach, with a specific view to looking at the next generation of bowlers in the country.The short ODI tour came at an awkward time, in the middle of the South African winter, and many of the players had to shake off the cobwebs before getting back into the groove. Donald was concerned that the team only managed to bowl out their opposition once in five matches. “We restricted sides, but we could not bowl teams out and we never really threatened,” he said. “Everyone was a bit underdone. Australia A spent three weeks together before then, we only had three days, but I fully expect the structures to change now that we have Vinnie and Corrie [van Zyl] at the High Performance Centre.”While Kirsten and Domingo’s views on the way forward for South African cricket will be known over the next few weeks, Donald has already outlined his mission. “We need to find a second wave of bowlers to Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. That will be vital. Those two need to be challenged because that will make them even more potent,” he said. He identified left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell as one of the bowlers who will form a crucial part of the team’s future plans. “He needs to make an impact and stake a Test claim.”Donald has also been working with the bowlers at his home franchise, the Knights, in Bloemfontein and will soon start “going to the other franchises to talk to the bowlers there”. He has been in regular telephonic and email communication with Kirsten, working on compiling reports on some of players who are on the fringes of the national side.Domingo, who is the only one of the three to have coached in the franchise set up, has been working on similar dossiers. “I’ve communicated with Gary about some ideas I’ve got for players around the country,” he said. “I’ve also been in close touch with Vinnie Barnes, and have been following how the players have been doing in the A-side and on the [English] county circuit.”In between compiling the database of players that Kirsten will scrutinise during the course of the next month, Domingo has spent the winter “taking the kids to school and fetching them and fishing a lot.” He will still be able to do that until the end of August, because only then does the real preparation for the future begin. South Africa’s season kicks off with a Twenty20 on October 13 against Australia in Cape Town.

Graham Onions has been called up to the England squad for the final Test against India at The Oval

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Aug-2011Graham Onions has been called up to the England squad for the final Test against India at The Oval after Chris Tremlett was ruled out due to his back injury while concerns emerged over James Anderson.Tremlett has failed to recover from the problems that ruled him out of the second and third Tests, meanwhile Anderson has experienced tightness in his right quadriceps since the victory at Edgbaston, on Sunday, which sealed the series and took England to No. 1 in the world. Steven Finn was already in the 13-man squad and now Onions will provide a further option for Andy Flower.For Onions it is his first call-up to the full national side since leaving the tour of Bangladesh in March 2010 with a back injury that would subsequently be diagnosed as a stress fracture and put his career in doubt. He missed the whole of the 2010 season and towards the end of the summer had metal pins inserted in his back.”Unfortunately Chris Tremlett has failed a fitness test and won’t be available for selection for the fourth Test, despite showing strong signs of recovery over the past few days,” Geoff Miller, the national selector, said. “Chris’s absence in conjunction with what appears to be a minor injury concern with Jimmy Anderson has led to a call up for Graham Onions as precautionary bowling cover.”We are hopeful that Jimmy will overcome this niggle by Thursday but more time is required before a decision on his availability can be made conclusively. Steven Finn is obviously in the squad and he is now joined by Graham Onions who has been in good form for Durham since returning from a back injury at the start of the season.”Onions has taken 39 wickets at 28.82 in nine Championship matches for Durham this season and played for England Lions against Sri Lanka at Derby in May. He only took three wickets in that match but bowled with good pace and has remained highly rated by the selectors throughout his injury lay-off.In eight Tests Onions has taken 28 wickets at 31.03 including a best of 5 for 38 which came on debut against West Indies at Lord’s. However, he is equally famous for two efforts with the bat when he survived the final overs against South Africa at Centurion and Cape Town. The Test at Newlands was his last because he was then dropped for the final match of the series at Johannesburg before injury struck in Bangladesh.Onions has been preferred over Jade Dernbach, the Surrey fast bowler, who was named as cover for the Lord’s Test against Sri Lanka earlier this season and has also made his one-day international debut. Whether he earns a recall to the XI will depend on whether Anderson, who has 18 wickets in the series including his four-wicket burst to remove the India top order on the fourth day at Edgbaston, is replaced with a like-for-like bowler should he not recover by Thursday.Finn is the next pace bowler in line for a spot having played against Sri Lanka and has been a regular part of the squad, but Flower and Andrew Strauss may decide that with Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan able to trouble India with the short ball that Onions’ fuller length is a better option.