Pace problems force England to call up Johnson

Flattering though it was that Australia should seek the guidance of an ancient Chinese general to secure the Ashes, they need not have bothered. England's capacity for cock-up in times of national sporting importance is legendary and yesterday, on the eve of the third Test, the selectors called up the Somerset pace bowler Richard Johnson after Chris Silverwood withdrew with a back problem and Alex Tudor had doubts cast on his fitness.

Injury is a fact of sport, but those plaguing England this summer have reached fictional proportions. With such a large crock list – at least eight players have missed one Test or more – you would think the selectors would be doubly careful. Yet in the run-up to this Test, both players, with only a few days cricket in the last month between them, appeared to be injuries waiting to happen.

Silverwood missed the Roses match six days ago with back trouble. Before that, he had bowled just 58 overs in the last two months, a quota most seamers would expect to bowl in a match.

Tudor, who has pulled out of as many Tests as he has played in (three), could still play in this match if he passes a fitness test this morning. Apparently, he is feeling some stiffness from the side he aggravated when playing for Surrey last Sunday and he looked decidedly ginger during both his spells in yesterday's nets.

Tudor's take on the matter is that he is worried about breaking down in the match. Yet the over-riding impression appears to be that, if it was Surrey, he would be prepared to risk it but Australia, in the pivotal match of an Ashes series, is a different matter.

It is a difficult one to call, particularly if the player, as Craig White has been, is not confident of playing with discomfort. White, who missed both Tests against Pakistan with a back problem, is still not firing on all cylinders with the ball. The niggle he had earlier in the season is still there but, for the Ashes, England persuaded him to numb it with pain-killers.

At least Johnson, the ninth bowler to summoned by England this season and rudely plucked from his county game against Kent, is fit, although that is a relative term: when he was picked to go on tour to South Africa in 1995-96 the then Middlesex bowler withdrew with a stress fracture.

"I was very surprised, no-one told me I was on standby," said Johnson. "I'm every excited. I've been working on a few things with my run-up and follow-through and I've been bowling much better this year than last. Ever since I pulled out of that England tour six years ago, I've never given up hope. I know that when I'm fit and bowling well, that I'm in the hunt."

With 37 first-class wickets for his new county this season, Johnson will not have the Australians quaking, but the chairman of selectors, David Graveney, revealed that, with Silverwood out of the reckoning, they has gone for replacing like with like.

"We've gone for a wicket-taking bowler who hits the pitch hard but also takes the ball away from the right-handers," said Graveney, perhaps unaware that Johnson's bowling figures in a county match here last season were 3 for 90 and 3 for 76.

Only 26, Johnson has been playing for nine years, first with Middlesex and now Somerset. A tall, strong bowler, he never fulfilled his potential with the London county, where he spent time under Australia's coach, John Buchanan. If he does play here, Steve Waugh's men will have had a dossier on him under their doors by dawn.

The timing of England's problems, on the eve of a match they must win to keep the holy grail of the Ashes alive, could not have been worse. In stark contrast to the "more upbeat England side" Steve Waugh detected before the latest setback, there is now a distracted air about the home team that does not bode well for the coming few days.

Australia, meanwhile, apart from the odd egg stain still visible as a result of their dabblings in oriental philosophy, have an unchanged side in place and their gaze firmly fixed on the magical urn.

Four years ago Australia retained the Ashes here and Michael Atherton offered to resign the captaincy, but was dissuaded. A temporary leader, he will have no such decisions to make this time. Indeed, he can probably take comfort from the fact that, since 1989, he has scored five centuries here while Australia have failed to register even one.

Another in the first innings, by any of the top seven, would be a boon and, on a pitch that the Nottinghamshire coach, Clive Rice, reckons will get better and better to bat on, a score in excess of 400 will be needed if Australia are to be pressured into making mistakes.

The portents for an England victory, especially with the distractions of yet more injuries, are not promising. Only one side have come from 2-0 down in a Ashes series and won – Australia in 1936-37. On that occasion, the decisive innings was made by Don Bradman, who, coming in with Australia in trouble, made 270, an innings Wisden rate as the greatest ever played.

If this Australian side are to be toppled, you sense something almost as spectacular will be needed. It is just a question of which England player, if any, will provide it.

ENGLAND (From): M A Atherton (capt), M E Trescothick, M A Butcher, M R Ramprakash, A J Stewart (wkt), I J Ward, U Afzaal, C White, R D B Croft, A J Tudor, A R Caddick, D Gough, R L Johnson.

AUSTRALIA: S R Waugh (capt), M J Slater, M L Hayden, R T Ponting, M E Waugh, D R Martyn, A C Gilchrist (wkt), S K Warne, B Lee, J N Gillespie, G D McGrath.