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Sri Lanka v England, First Test betting: Harmison return would be sheer folly

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Andrew Hughes thinks time is running out for heroes of 2005...

Two years on from the triumph of the 2005 Ashes and the England team is not so much in transition as in limbo. There is a new team struggling out from under the debris of the Fletcher regime, but it needs time and some clear thinking from the selectors. Peter Moores will not want to throw the selectoral baby out with the bathwater but with another Ashes series on the horizon, there will come a point when some tough decisions need to be made about some familiar faces. In that context, bringing back Ramprakash for the tour of Sri Lanka would have made no sense.

Comparisons between his omission and that of David Gower's late in his career are wide of the mark. Gower was one of the best English batsmen of all time, whereas Ramprakash, given numerous opportunities, could only manage a Test average of 27. To choose a man pushing forty who could retire at any time purely on the basis of County Championship runs would have been a step backwards. His rather petulant refusal of an offer to be on standby for the Sri Lanka tour should be the final page in his Test career.

Unfortunately, having made the right decision over Ramprakash, the dalliance with Harmison suggests that the selectors' thinking is not as clear as it should be. Harmison has been expensive in South Africa and his ten overs in Colombo last week went for 48. His suggestion that he is in the team to bowl fast not line and length, as though those two qualities were mutually exclusive, suggests he has learnt nothing. His back spasm in the nets this weekend seems to have ended the idea that he might play a part in the first Test, which would quite frankly have been a travesty.

But providing Peter Moores is purely focused on the future, there is reason for encouragement and I think this tour with Sri Lanka can be a successful one. The current series odds look about right, but I think there is some value in backing the tourists to win the First Test. The pitch at Kandy has in the past offered some bounce for the pacemen and, if the clouds settle on the nearby hills, some swing as well. Only a quarter of matches there have finished in a draw so I think the [2.82] on offer about the draw is too short. I will be backing England at a tempting [5.0] bearing in mind that they have also had valuable recent experience of the conditions in the successful one-day series here last month.

Bowling wise, England's line up should pick itself. They are likely to go in with an attack of Hoggard, Sidebottom, Broad and Panesar. Anderson may not be fit to take part but I wouldn't pick him even if he were. I have my doubts over his stamina and mental strength bowling in what can be stifling and attritional conditions. I am also fairly sure that at some point, we will see Graeme Swann play, either on the flat wicket at Colombo or the spinners paradise of Galle.

The batting looks settled, the only issue being who bats at six. I would favour Owais Shah over Ravi Bopara, since Shah is the better and more patient batsman and I'm not sure that Bopara's brisk medium pace will be much use in Sri Lanka, particularly when Collingwood can fulfil that role if required. In Cook, Bell and Collingwood, England have batsmen comfortable with the attritional conditions of South Asian cricket and I would be looking at one of those three for top England series batsman, rather than the predictable Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen will come good at some point, but at the moment, his mental freshness as well as his patience on these sort of wickets is in question and I would be looking to back Ian Bell at [5.5] and Collingwood at [7.4]

As for the stars of 2005, will we ever see Flintoff, Harmison, Tresothick and Strauss together in an England team again? I'd be interested in your thoughts.

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