12:00pm Wednesday 3rd March 2010
ESSEX batsman Ravi Bopara has been thrown a lifeline by the England selectors after being named in the ICC World Twenty20 squad.
But the middle-order batsman will have to prove himself if he is to make the final team for the event, which starts in the West Indies next month.
The 24-year-old has the chance to increase his stock playing for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League before linking up with his England team-mates.
And following a successful winter playing for the Auckland Aces, national selector Geoff Miller hopes Bopara can rediscover the form which propelled him into England’s Ashes squad as an inked-in number three at the start of last summer.
“Ravi’s been reassessing himself,” he said.
“He had a bit of a torrid time; he knew that. He’s gone away, gone abroad and looked after his career, and done really well.
“He’s a vital part of our squad, and we still think a lot about him. So when he comes back we’ll have a look and see where he is.”
But Bopara’s Essex team-mate Alastair Cook will have to convince England he is a Twenty20 player after all if he is to force his way back into the team.
England’s current one-day international and Test captain, deputising for Andrew Strauss in Bangladesh, discovered on Monday he was absent from the 30-man ICC World Twenty20 squad.
“The message is that originally we said we didn’t think Alastair was a Twenty20 player — and we still stick by that,” Miller added.
“He has to prove us wrong. He’s played very well out here (in Bangladesh) — and if he can carry his career into that area then we’ll reassess.
“But at the moment we don’t see him as a Twenty20 player, and that’s why he’s not in.”
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