Opportunity knocks

Maybe I'm a glass half-full kind of a person, but I can't help seeing a massive opportunity in England's current tour of India. And yes, I mean for for England.

To really succeed in international sport, one needs more than a team of world-class players: one needs a group of almost as many players lined up behind the first team, champing at the bit to get in the side, creating constant competition for places and also being there to step in when injuries strike and enable the team to continue with only very little lowering of their standards.

England have not really had that so far - OK so we finally managed to marry a world class batting line-up with a world-class bowling line up in the Ashes, but whenever injury strikes there is a massive bout of soul-searching as to who on earth to call in. Who is our second spinner? Our second all-rounder?

What interests me about the current tour is that the number of injuries to
first choice players means a whole raft of stand-in players have a chance to
really establish themselves, play a few games, stake their claims to be
first choice. Some will take the chance - Cook seems a certainty. Some will
not. But by the end of the tour we should have a much better idea of which
of the second fiddlers can prove their true worth under the sustained
pressure of test match cricket, and deserve to remain as our stand-by
options, even if they do not force themselves into the first team. With the
Ashes and World Cup looming, this is a good time for it to happen. I told
you I was a glass half-full person.

Dan Jellinek is a Brighton-based writer, publisher and cricket fan