Bopara England's answer to problem at No 6

London: Ravi Bopara has a hole in his boot, and is proudly showing it off.

It is the sort of hole proper bowlers, usually querulous and sweat-drenched types — think Angus Fraser — cut above the big toe on their left foot to release the pressure of continuously banging down hard in delivery.

This is significant because Bopara has not done this before. But then he has not usually done this much bowling.

At Chelmsford last week against Glamorgan he bowled 39 overs of his briskish medium-pace. The week before it was 31 against Northamptonshire. He might not be running through opposition orders — he has only eight wickets at 42 this season — but, in conceding only about three runs an over, he is "doing a job", as they say in the trade.

It is significant because England are searching for a number six batsman to "do a job" with the ball in their Test side. The resident worker Paul Collingwood has retired, and Ian Bell is almost certain to move up to number five in the order. That leaves a hole of a different kind at number six.

Eoin Morgan, a Test centurion last summer against Pakistan and the reserve batsman on the winter Ashes tour, long appeared the obvious replacement. But he can't bowl. And with England wedded to their four-main-bowlers strategy, that is a worry.

Just as worrying is that Morgan is experiencing a Gobi-like run drought in the Indian Premier League. In seven matches for the Kolkata Knight Riders he has not batted in three. In the other four he has made just 22.

Back in this country on May 16, he will have just one County Championship match against Glamorgan before the first Test against Sri Lanka on May 26.

Offer turned down

Bopara, of course, could also have been at the IPL right now. But he turned down £150,000 (Dh920,265) from the Rajasthan Royals to be a late replacement for the injured Collingwood. He was thinking of a Test recall.

"My main aim in my career is to play Test cricket for England," he said. "I really enjoyed the two seasons I played at the IPL, but I don't think I'm missing out now.

"I sat down with Goochie [Essex and England batting coach Graham Gooch] and had a little chat. I knew what he was going to say but it was good to hear it anyway: ‘I don't think you should go. You've got a great opportunity to grab a Test spot and hopefully stay there for the next ten years'."

It seems a resounding win for the primacy of Test cricket. But Bopara was in the IPL auction in January. He found no takers. "Yes, if I'd been picked up then I'd have been playing now," he said. "But when I entered myself into that auction it was way before Colly retired."

Lack of runs

It is a fair point. And it is a fair guess that Gooch took his cue from other members of England's management team. It is my understanding that England decided some time ago that they wanted Bopara at number six.

The IPL decision was laudable, but before last week there had been one problem. The runs. Bopara simply had not been getting enough. His championship scores in Division Two had read: 0, 39, 13, 4, 31 and 5. But in mitigation none of the pitches he had batted on had exactly been featherbeds. I watched Bopara make 61 on a good pitch at Chelmsford on Wednesday against Glamorgan. But even though his dismissal was tame — caught-and-bowled by left-arm spinner Dean Cosker — he batted decently. In the second innings he did rather more than that. He made a sublime 136 not out to win the game. There was a reason.

"Before this game I had a bit of free time to myself," Bopara says, "And I thought: ‘You know what? It's only a game. Stop getting so worked up about the prospects of playing international cricket.'"

He will surely be picked now. And he will be better prepared. A Cardiff comeback beckons.

— The Telegraph