IF ENGLAND’S selectors had delayed their decision until they had had one more look at Stuart Broad in the finals of the Twenty20 Cup on Saturday they just might have been tempted to replicate a momentous decision taken by their counterparts towards the end of Pakistan’s first tour of England in 1954.

Frank Tyson was picked for the last Test of that wet summer after only one full season in county cricket and became the biggest single reason for the retaining of the Ashes the winter after.

More than 50 years on, temptation was avoided when David Graveney announced an unchanged squad of 12 yesterday for the seventh and last npower Test of the season, a sellout at the Brit Oval for the first four days. Jon Lewis has been summoned along with the Headingley Carnegie XI.

Barring a wholesale change in the weather, Lewis will spend the first part of the week in South London only for his customary net sessions before returning to Gloucestershire, because Sajid Mahmood needs to be given the opportunity to build on his encouraging finish at Leeds. Lewis would play only if Matthew Hoggard is unable to prove that the sore knee that seemed to restrict him a little on his home ground is bad enough for him to have a rest.

The Gloucestershire captain may or may not be included in the squad of 16 for the one-day internationals against Pakistan, which will be named before the end of the fourth Test. What is more certain is that Broad will make his first international appearance then. Already he looks the potential superior of Mahmood, Liam Plunkett and Lewis, not to mention any other fast bowler in the country.

No one wishes to make a hostage to fortune but if Broad is as well handled by England as he has already been by Oakham Scool and Leicestershire, he is going to take more wickets in international cricket even than Stephen Harmison or Andrew Flintoff.

At 20 he has unusual pace from a good, high action. The potential for speeds in the early eighties to become higher still is clearly there, no matter how unusual it is for a bowler of his height — 6ft 6in and growing — to bowl genuinely fast for long periods.

As with Harmison at his best, however, bounce is already as much his weapon as speed through the air. Already he has shown for Leicestershire that he has the necessary competitive instinct — hardly likely to be missing in a son of Chris — and one only has to see him bat for ten minutes to know that he will score more runs than Plunkett or Mahmood.

The need, of course, is for patience in those guiding him, of the kind admirably shown by Tim Boon and Jeremy Snape, his coach and captain at Leicestershire; and for Broad Jr himself to keep a level head and size 12 feet on the ground. If so, he is likely to last much longer as an England cricketer than Tyson, the shooting star with wider interests.

If he is to appear in Australia this winter it is more likely to be either in the one-day games, depending on how he fares against Pakistan, or, like Bob Willis when he first appeared on Ray Illingworth’s tour in 1970-71, as a replacement.

The selectors do not have to make up their minds about the touring party for Australia until the last one-day international against Pakistan has been played on September 10. By then, with Michael Vaughan eliminated and Simon Jones virtually so, the progress of Ashley Giles, James Anderson and Flintoff after their operations may be more accurately assessed. As things stand, decisions will have to be taken in only three positions in the Test party to Australia but the question of whether Flintoff or Andrew Strauss leads out England at Brisbane on November 23 is harder than any.

Memories are short. Very few were questioning Flintoff’s leadership when he did so well in India, battling with the bat in the second innings in Bombay much as Strauss did in the second innings at Headingley. Everything seemed to change when he captained with his heart before his head against Sri Lanka at Lord’s but too few had foreseen from the outset the problem that a fast-bowling captain inevitably has.

Strauss was always going to be capable of taking on the extra responsibility. Flintoff, too, but in his role as the team’s pivot it was and still is a matter of when the time is best, for himself and the team. If he is to be one of only four frontline bowlers in the Test XI in Australia there is a stronger case for Strauss, but only when his likely fitness can be more clearly assessed will a rational decision be possible.

Neither this nor the other questions are likely to receive much enlightenment at the Oval this week. Anderson is still the most likely fourth fast bowler ahead of Plunkett and Broad. Giles is the probable second spinner, with Jamie Dalrymple in reserve. Robert Key, Owais Shah and Ed Joyce must contest the seventh batting place elsewhere.

SQUAD

A J Strauss (Middlesex, captain),
M E Trescothick (Somerset),
A N Cook (Essex),
K P Pietersen (Hampshire),
P D Collingwood (Durham),
I R Bell (Warwickshire),
C M W Read (Nottinghamshire, wicketkeeper),
M J Hoggard (Yorkshire),
S J Harmison (Durham),
M S Panesar (Northamptonshire),
S I Mahmood (Lancashire),
J Lewis (Gloucestershire)