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Formidable South Africans will be pushed by English momentum

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The ingredients are in place for home success as Carberry fails to hit the decks running.

There can't be too many county cricketers who count being a DJ as their hobby. But Hampshire opener Michael Carberry spends a lot of his spare time spinning the decks at various London clubs and bars. The earring-wearring, smooth-headed twenty-eight-year-old is just the kind of character who could well fit into KP's new England dressing room.

But is he good enough? On the evidence of last year, his best season in the county championship, he could be. An average of over fifty elevated him to the status of England fringe player and given a place on the Lions tour of India, he didn't disappoint, his performances in the subcontinent marking him as the stand-out batsman in the touring party. An early season century for the MCC did his cause no harm and he has since been selected in the provisional thirty man ICC squad.

However, one good summer does not a Test batsman make. Remove the 2007 statistics from his record and it starts to look somewhere south of ordinary. His first class average is a half-run over thirty-eight, not the kind of stat that leaps off the page. And in common with his county, he is having a distinctly mediocre season in 2008, averaging less than thirty and at one point enduring a nightmare run of five innings during which he amassed twelve runs.

Of course, mere statistics need not stand in the way of advancement. If the talent is there, a mediocre county record can be overlooked. And in Carberry's case, the frustrating lack of opportunity he endured during spells at Surrey and Kent, before coming to the south coast in 2006, could surely be some sort of mitigation.

Unfortunately, in the case of Carberry's batting, the jury is still deliberating. He undoubtedly has some sweet shots. A stocky, chunky left-hander, his full-blooded cover-drives are as clean and true as you will see anywhere on the county circuit. Give him any width at all on the off side and he will slice you through the covers or slash you to the point boundary as conclusively as any of the current England batsmen. But the case for the prosecution is built around his relatively pedestrian scoring rate, his tendency to get bogged down and then play a loose shot and his weakness square on the leg side. There is plenty of conviction in his hook and pull shots but very little control.

You might think this all sounds very familiar. You'd be right. It is a description that could apply, almost word for word to Andrew Strauss and therein lies Carberry's problem. If England were to drop Strauss, would they be willing to replace him with an identikit player possessing identical faults? Kent's Robert Key, a more experienced, more dominant right handed opener must surely be the preferred option.

In which case, Carberry's best hope of advancement, bearing in mind that he is also one of the best fielders on the circuit, would surely be in the one day game, a format in which Strauss seems surplus to requirements and Cook appears to be less than comfortable. Unfortunately, like Strauss, he scores relatively slowly in limited overs cricket and lacks the range of shots or improvisational skills to thrive in that format. His failure to be picked for the current one day series against South Africa was not a positive sign. It makes selection for the Champions Trophy less likely and with England only playing two Tests in India this winter, it is entirely possible that they will only take two openers. Neither of them will be Carberry.

For the moment, England seem content with the strategy of opening with Alastair Cook and a pinch hitter, most likely to be Matt Prior. The return of the Sussex keeper should certainly give the innings a bit of early momentum and with Shah likely to bat at three and the big hitting options of Pietersen, Bopara, Wright and Flintoff available, the ingredients are there for bit of home success. But South Africa are a formidable one day outfit and are understandable favourites to win the opening match of the series at Headingley on Friday. You can back the visitors at [1.72] with KP's men as high as [2.24] .

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