Seven years ago on this ground, a man whom nobody recognised walked out to bat for England in an Ashes Test. It turned out to be the serial hoaxer Karl Power, whose other stunts included having his picture taken with the Manchester United team on the pitch in Germany against Bayern Munich and playing on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

In a way, history repeated itself on Friday, in that there was a man bowling for England whom almost nobody recognised. It quickly became apparent that the only remarkable thing about Darren Pattinson is his selection.

With his side parting and bloke-next-door looks, this Australian-raised roof tiler would pass anonymously along most streets. And sadly there was not much to write home about about his bowling. Not that he has exactly been shown up by his more experienced colleagues – and to be fair, he did take the only South African wicket to fall on the second day.

The Darren Debate continued to rage at Headingley yesterday with yet more head-scratching about why exactly England had overlooked a host of reasonably inform seamers – including Chris Tremlett, the man originally called up as cover for Ryan Sidebottom – and plumped instead for a 29-year-old with just 11 first-class games behind him and whose father says “is an Australian”.

Geoff Miller, England’s chairman of selectors, said Pattinson has “outbowled” other candidates including Matthew Hoggard, who would have been an obvious horses-for-courses pick on his home ground. Pattinson’s record this season is superior to Hoggard’s, having taken 29 first-class wickets at 20 runs apiece, including five-wicket hauls against Kent, Lancashire and Surrey.

Ottis Gibson, the England bowling coach, confirmed he was a horses-for-courses selection and admitted it had been “a tough day, and not just for him” but insisted that England had bowled well. “Sometimes you can only do as much as the conditions allow,” he said. Peter Moores, the head coach, added that it would be an “education” for Pattinson. England have got hooked on the Headingley factor and banked on the ball swinging. It has not – at least for their bowlers – and they are now in a very exposed position.

There may also be a sense of the selectors, having made the tough decisions to drop Hoggard and Steve Harmison in New Zealand, trying to cut ties with the Duncan Fletcher era and move forward, rather than reverting to the Ashes 2005 heroes, Andrew Flintoff aside.

One conspiracy theory doing the rounds yesterday was that it was an attempt to spike the Australian selectors’ guns, on the basis that Pattinson, having done well for Nottinghamshire and earned a contract with Victoria, might be a candidate for Australia’s squad for next year’s Ashes.

In his newspaper column yesterday, Shane Warne, a fellow Victorian, described Pattinson as “tough” and “a trier” – hardly a ringing endorsement, yet one that was hard to disagree with.

Flintoff was thrown the ball ahead of him yesterday and then again when England took the second new ball. There loomed the uncomfortable possibility that, after three innocuous overs on Friday evening, he might not be trusted again by Michael Vaughan. He got his chance and bowled passably, though without threat. Again he struggled to find swing.

It was something of a surprise when he dismissed Hashim Amla, lbw for 38. He was lucky with the umpire’s decision because the ball looked to be missing leg stump, but it was a canny delivery: an attempted slower ball that hit Amla on the full. Amla denied he was outfoxed, but did admit that umpire Billy Bowden had given him out on Friday before being recalled on the strength of his teammates seeing a TV replay of Vaughan’s disputed catch.

Pattinson produced a beauty soon after that bounced and left AB de Villiers early in his innings but that was as good as it got for him, or indeed the rest of England’s anaemic attack. On this evidence, Pattinson looks like he will go down in history as one of those bizarre and bewildering Headingley statistics that illuminate this eccentric sport.

John Stern is editor of The Wisden Cricketer

Headingley hunches: England bowlers picked for Leeds

ARNOLD WARREN v AUSTRALIA 1905 Tall fast bowler who took five for 57 in the first innings but was not picked again

MIKE SMITH v AUSTRALIA 1997 Gloucestershire left-armer who had Aussie opener Matthew Elliott dropped at slip by Graham Thorpe on 29. Elliott went on to make 199, England lost, Smith went wicketless and never played again

STEVE WATKIN v WEST INDIES 1991 Glamorgan swing bowler who was a Leeds success story in a 115-run victory. However, he only played twice more

NEIL MALLENDER v PAKISTAN 1992 Coincidentally he is the fourth official for the current Test at Leeds. He took eight wickets for England in a six-wicket victory against Pakistan but played only the next Test

MARTIN BICKNELL v AUSTRALIA 1993 Surrey stalwart who had two stabs at Headingley. The first went badly as he took one for 155. He reappeared out of the blue a decade later against South Africa when he was more successful, taking six wickets

KABIR ALI v SOUTH AFRICA 2003 A Leeds one-cap wonder. He took five wickets in the match but England lost

DARREN PATTINSON v SOUTH AFRICA 2008 Grimsby-born, Melbourne-reared former roof tiler was expecting to take his kids to Alton Towers when he became one of England’s most bizarre picks