Key selection opens door to England's next generation

The selections of the uncapped Robert Key, Stephen Harmison and an earlier than expected recall for Alex Tudor has given England the chance, during this week's second Test against India at Trent Bridge, to look into the future.

Whether what we witness – from this squad of 13 players, of whom five are under the age of 25 – will be to our liking or not, only time will tell, but it is refreshing to see the England selectors use this opportunity, due to injuries to senior players, to blood the next generation of England cricketer.

Each of the five youngsters in the squad, along with Glamorgan's Simon Jones, who made an exciting debut before withdrawing form this Test match with a side strain, spent certain parts of last winter at the National Academy in Australia. And it is to the huge credit of Rod Marsh and his team in Adelaide that not one of the players that has gone on to play for England this summer has looked overawed. All appear to have progressed as cricketers.

Nobody seems to have benefited more from Marsh's hard but fair regime than the Kent opening batsman Key. Having watched and bowled at the solid right-hander in the last couple of years while playing for Middlesex, he has looked to me like so many young English cricketers – full of talent but set to underachieve because of a take it or leave it attitude.

He could bat, there was no doubt about that, being strong on both the front and the back foot, but he was overweight and gave the appearance of someone who felt there were better things to do in life than play cricket.

However a conversation with Alec Stewart, who pulled him to one side at a dinner and told him that there would be big opportunities for someone like him soon, with Michael Atherton about to retire, put him on the right track. Stewart told Key he needed to get fitter and work harder at his game. Realising that Stewart would not have said such a thing to a player he did not rate, Key then started to put in the hard work both in Australia and also back here in the United Kingdom.

His transformation from a fat lad to an athlete is almost as striking as that which occurred to Andrew Flintoff, although I do not expect him to run around the ground with his shirt off should he score a hundred on debut.

In explaining the reasons behind choosing Key, David Graveney, England's chairman of selectors, said: "We also considered Ian Bell and David Fulton as replacements for Graham Thorpe but Robert has been in outstanding form for Kent. His career has really kicked off this season after his winter at the National Academy. He will open the batting with Michael Vaughan with Mark Butcher coming in at No 3."

Matthew Fleming, the Kent captain, was also full of praise for his team-mate and the hard work he has put in. He said: "He is the closest thing to being the complete batsman that I have seen this summer."

While Key is certain to play, three fast bowlers, Harmison, Tudor and Dominic Cork, will be nervously watching the skies and the middle of Trent Bridge to see what the weather and the pitch are like before Thursday. The final place in the XI will probably be between these three unless the conditions are such that Ashley Giles is left out.

If conditions are similar to Lord's, Nasser Hussain will be tempted to give the raw speed and bounce of Harmison a go ahead of his two more experienced colleagues. The England captain would have noticed during the first Test that the Indian batsmen appeared unsettled by the extra pace of Jones and, if possible, it would be a set of circumstances he would like to repeat.

Graveney described Harmison's selection to replace Jones as a "like for like replacement to give us the option of express pace".

Harmison, who was selected in England squads during the 2001 series against Zimbabwe, has yet to make his international debut. He is a different type of quick bowler to Jones. While Jones is flat and skiddy, the taller and longer limbed Harmison extracts steep bounce from his high action in the manner of the great West Indian fast bowler, Curtly Ambrose. He has yet to achieve the control of Ambrose but he has enough pace for Justin Langer, the Australian opening batsman, to say "he was as quick a bowler as any I faced during my three seasons with Middlesex."

Aware that bringing Tudor back might smack of inconsistency after Hussain had rightly stated that every bowler had to prove his fitness before being considered for England, Graveney said: "Our resources in the bowling department have been stretched for this match and we have had to slightly vary our policy on fitness. Tudor played in a one-day game last week and we will give him every opportunity to prove he is fully fit in the run up to this Test match."

For a side that has had the fitness of half its players to worry about over the last month, I think we could forgive them for that.

ENGLAND SQUAD

Second Test v India, Trent Bridge, Thursday: N Hussain (Essex, capt) age 34, Tests 72, M P Vaughan (Yorkshire) 27/20, M A Butcher (Surrey) 29/42, R W T Key (Kent) 23/0, J P Crawley (Hampshire) 30/31, A J Stewart (Surrey, wkt) 39/119, A Flintoff (Lancashire) 24/19, C White (Yorkshire) 31/25, A F Giles (Warwickshire) 29/16, M J Hoggard (Yorkshire) 25/12, D G Cork (Derbyshire) 30/35, S J Harmison (Durham) 23/0, A J Tudor (Surrey) 24/7.