The England selectors meet this week to pick their squad for the first Test against New Zealand and review long-term strategy, and it is possible that Mark Ramprakash’s name will not even be mentioned. Everybody knows, though, that he has been the form batsman in county cricket for years.

As the curtain went up on the new season, Ramprakash expressed doubts that he could once again average more than 100, as he had in 2006 and 2007. How right he was. When he was finally out for 123 yesterday, giving a return catch to Sussex spinner Ollie Rayner, his tally from three championship innings stood at 297, his average a mere 99.0.

This was his 99th hundred in first-class cricket and there is now the delicious possibility that (barring a miraculous Test recall) he might record his hundredth hundred at Southampton next week and briefly draw attention away from proceedings at Lord’s. There would be some embarrassed faces in the corridors of power if that happened.

Two things stand against a Ramprakash recall. One is his age (38); the other, his meagre Test average of 27.3 in 52 appearances between 1991 and 2002. The argument is that he has had his chance, and it is hard to disagree. Even Ramprakash finds it hard to disagree, and it may well be that he now plays so well precisely because he knows the selectors won’t call again.

What stands in favour of his recall is that England’s top six have done themselves few favours of late. They have been short of hundreds and short of runs, and had three of them not made centuries in the final Test of the winter the pressure for change might have been irresistible. As it is, the selectors look sure to stand by them all.

It doesn’t help the causes of Ramprakash, Robert Key, Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara that the insider in the shakiest form is the captain, Michael Vaughan, so logically any change should start with him. Peter Moores’ explanation last week as to why it won’t could, though, equally be used in support of a Ramprakash return: “Players in the last third of their careers seem to find the key to making big scores,” he said. “Michael’s looking forward to making some scores [for England] and I expect him to come back.”

Though he was never at his best, this was one of Ramprakash’s easier hundreds. The game was dead, the teams having decided to play for first-innings points and take the draw. When the market researchers arrive to take soundings about what spectators now want from county cricket in the light of the rise of Twenty20, such days as this won’t do anything for retaining a 16-match championship programme. It was a sunny day but the crowd was sparse.

Ramprakash and Mark Butcher worked slowly through the first hour, knowing that if they could see off the opening bursts of James Kirtley and Jason Lewry, both playing their first matches of the season, Sussex had little left in reserve without Mushtaq Ahmed. With the pressure released, Ramprakash moved to his hundred with three fours in four overs, one off an edge against Lewry, two dispatched more expertly through the off side off Rayner. This was, though, the slowest of the 20 centuries he had scored since April 2006, off 224 balls.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine him making another huge score – he reached 266 here last year – but after starting to accelerate he was beaten in the flight by Rayner, leaving the field clear for Alistair Brown and Usman Afzaal to pick up half-centuries. Surrey declared after reaching their final bonus point to deny Sussex more points themselves.

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