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27 July
2008 Harmison Must
Take His Chance Steve Harmison
will be given every opportunity to prove he has
rediscovered his fear factor when he meets up with
England's Test squad this week, as reported by
Ladbrokes. Durham fast
bowler Harmison, 29, has spent the past four months
in the international wilderness but has been
recalled to a 13-man party for the third npower
Test against South Africa at Edgbaston. Those that have
witnessed him at close quarters this summer claim
the menace last seen in him a couple of summers ago
when he routed Pakistan at Old Trafford is
back. Two indifferent
years followed that zenith, which bore match
figures of 11 for 76, but he now has the
opportunity to make a new start in an England
shirt. "The ball is in
his court." said national selector Geoff Miller.
"If he bowls well and does the job we ask him to do
then it could be." Bet now at
Ladbrokes Miller and
England captain Michael Vaughan are among those to
have been impressed by the alignment of speed and
direction in Harmison's bowling this
season. Having
rediscovered the zip he lost on the tour of New
Zealand, he has been the most prolific operator in
the top division of the County Championship with 40
victims, a statistic which convinced the four-man
selection panel it was time for a
recall. "There's no risk
at all," said Miller. "We wouldn't have put him in
if we thought there was a risk. We talk to all the
players regularly and I have watched him bowl this
year and talked to him myself. People are now
saying he is in a better place than he was, and he
now looks like the bowler he was a couple of years
ago when he was striking fear into opposition
batsmen." Durham captain
Dale Benkenstein is another advocate of his return
to the top level. "He's been
outstanding in all forms of the game." enthused
Benkenstein. "He's got great control at the moment,
he's bowling with great pace and I think he's ready
to get back into the Test side. He adds a new
dimension. He's got pace and bounce and will bring
a fear factor into the game. He adds a good balance
to the side and I don't think the tail will be
hanging around with him in the team. For me it's
great to have him in the side - I'd never leave him
out of our side." There is no
guarantee Harmison will be in the XI when play gets
under way on Wednesday but with England 1-0 down
with two matches left, changes were
inevitable. Darren Pattinson,
the much-maligned stand-in swing bowler, has been
returned to pasture in county cricket while Stuart
Broad's ineffective summer with the ball could
result in his omission. "It is tough."
said Miller. "Stuart is a young lad and he has done
really, really well. But at some stage you have to
look at the situation, you do not want burnout, and
there is a lot of cricket to be played. He's
involved in both five-day and one-day cricket and
there is lots and lots of that. It is a case of
nurturing him and making sure we get the best out
of him now if possible but over a longer period of
time as well." Miller,
meanwhile, insists the door is not closed on either
Australian-raised Pattinson, who took two wickets
on debut at Headingley, or Test veteran Matthew
Hoggard. Asked if he had
regrets about picking Pattinson for the 10-wicket
defeat in Leeds, Miller said: "No regrets at all.
We are not just picking a team any more, there is
so much cricket it is now about a squad and if he
bowls as well as he has done in the first half of
the season he will be in with a shout of further
opportunities." Of Yorkshire's
Hoggard, he added: "He's still part of the
equation. He's still a centrally-contracted player
but at the moment in time when we picked the last
Test side he was being out-bowled by Darren
Pattinson. That's the decision we made but that
doesn't mean to say that Matthew is out of the
picture." Bet now at
Ladbrokes |
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