Of the two names doing the rounds in English cricketing circles as possible Ashes saviours, one has been ruled out and one is being 'seriously considered', says national selector Geoff Miller.
Miller ruled out the possibility of a return for Marcus Trescothick, but said Mark Ramprakash could be in line for a recall to the test side in a one-off capacity for the deciding fifth Test of the Ashes.
"Mark has not stated he's not available for international cricket, so we will discuss that," Miller was quoted as saying by Cricinfo. "It's not just my decision, it's a team decision, and we'll sit down as a unit. We have a consistency and continuity angle as far as selection policy is concerned and we try to stick to that as much as possible. But we do want to win this series, which is a matter of winning this game in a one-match situation, so it's a very difficult equation as [is the case with] all selection policies."
At the same time, Miller defended the players he and his committee selected for the fateful fourth Test at Headingley, and reiterated that there would not be a kneejerk reaction ahead of the Oval showdown on August 20th, regardless of how much speculation is there in the media.
"I don't think anyone has ever said being a selector is an easy job, and one bad performance like that spotlights it," said Miller. "A selector is there to be shot at - if we do well the players have done well, if we do badly it's the selectors' fault - and that goes with the territory. We fully understand that, but the job now is to rectify the performance and win at The Oval, and that's what our minds are on.
"What's happened is that the press have jumped on one mediocre performance - which it was, and there's no getting away from that, it was very much an under-performance, and that has got to be rectified - but it's not as though we are three or four-nil down, it's 1-1. If we win this Test match we regain the Ashes, and that's what we intend to do.
"We as an England team tend to do well with our backs to the wall so we are hoping we can bounce back mentally and technically, and I'm sure the players can, because they are international quality players."
Miller also defended the under-fire Ravi Bopara, who made three consecutive hundreds against the West Indies before the Ashes, but has managed just 105 runs from 7 innings in the four Tests. When questioned about dropping Bopara, Miller said, "Not necessarily. It's an option, certainly, and we'll strongly look at it, but you don't become a bad player overnight, just because you're in a bad trot. It also depends what you are like mentally as well as technically. We'll look at it in discussion with the captain and coach, see what he's like in the changing room, and if it's necessary we'll go down that line.
"But we don't just make changes for the sake of making changes," he said. "Our meetings are not two-minute affairs, never have been, never will be. We'll look at every aspect of each game separately, and hopefully make the right decisions because this Test decides the series."
About Andrew Flintoff Miller was optimistic, but said the all-rounder's fitness would ultimately have to be judged in the nets.
"It looks very favourable at the moment, but we'll wait and see what's happened in a couple of days," he said. "If it looks as though he can be selected in the squad then we will probably do that because the England side with Freddie playing in it at his best is a quality side, but we'll have to monitor it day by day and see how he performs in the nets, because he's got to do the workload required by the captain to justify his selection."
However, Miller unequivocally ruled out Marcus Trescothick's name from the selection table, since the batsman has officially retired.
"Marcus has many times said he's retired from international cricket, and until I hear contrary to that, he will not be a part of the selection process. He knows where he is, he's really comfortable and playing really, really well, but he's retired from Test cricket so he's not a part of our thoughts at this moment in time."
© Cricbuzz
