da betway： Duncan Fletcher has insisted that Michael Vaughan’s fate is in his own hands
da aposte e ganhe： Andrew Miller18-Nov-2005
Michael Vaughan had a good test on his knee, but he has not yet been confirmed for the second Test © Getty Images
Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, has insisted that Michael Vaughan’s fateis in his own hands as he continues to recuperate after the knee injuryhe suffered while batting at Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore last week. Vaughan,who missed England’s defeat in the first Test at Multan, was put throughhis paces in the nets at Faisalabad today, leaving Fletcher trusting inhis captain’s professionalism.”If he wants to play he can play,” Fletcher told reporters at the teamhotel in Faisalabad. “We can’t be absolutely confident, because he’s had thisknee problem before, but he’s got to live with it. He gave himself a goodtest today which was good to see, but we’ll be keen to monitor it over thenext couple of days.”Much as England would want their captain to return to shore up a brittlemiddle-order, the news that Marcus Trescothick will be staying with thetour, and not returning home to attend to a family incident, couldpersuade the England thinktank to take a more prudent approach.Trescothick’s father-in-law fell off a ladder and sustained serious headinjuries earlier this week, but his condition is now said to be stable.”From our point of view, Marcus is a world-class player who averages over40 and is batting as well as he ever has, so it’s great news he’s stayingon,” said Fletcher. “Having lost Simon Jones [before the tour began], tomiss another quality player would have been a big problem.”If there were any concerns that Trescothick would not be able to focus onthe job at hand, then Fletcher brushed them aside. “He got the news whileplaying [in the first Test], and it didn’t seem to affect him. It was moreserious at that time and it would have been a shock to him. But he wentout, captained the side very well, kept the energy levels up, and it neverlooked a problem. Hopefully he can adjust to that when this Test starts.”England could do without such speculation about two of their key players,as they look to regroup after their shock defeat in the first Test.Fletcher refused to speculate on the balance of the side until he had hada proper look at the wicket – which at present is covered in grassclippings to prevent any cracks appearing too soon – but he commended hissquad’s intensity during their first practice session since the Multandefeat.As to that disastrous final morning, in which England lost their last ninewickets for 111, Fletcher conceded: “We probably needed a little morepatience, because the opposition were allowed to bowl well for a period oftime. But it’s a fine line. We don’t want to become too patient and getbogged down, because our players are instinctive players to some degree.”But you’ve got to be a little careful,” Fletcher added. “The thing aboutTest cricket is that you can play well for four days then get into troublein just one hour. You’ve got to make sure you focus for every session offive days. But they’ve all done it before, and all our players work fortheir runs. It’s just a matter of reading the situation and playing thatsituation.”Of England’s middle-order, Kevin Pietersen – with a highest score of 19 insix innings on tour – is the man under the most scrutiny, but Fletcherbacked him to come good soon enough. “You could say he was a bit of aworry before the Oval Test, but then he got a big hundred. It’s only beenone Test. We expect him to get runs in this Test match, because he’s thetype of player who can hit a rich run of form.”As to whether England could bounce back with victory in their next Test,as they have done in every one of their four previous Test defeats of theVaughan era, Fletcher was guarded. “I’m confident but that’s noguarantee,” he said. “We’ve started well and finished badly, we’ve startedbadly and finished well, we’ve started well and finished well, and we’vestarted badly and finished badly. We’ve been right through them all, sofrom our point of view we’ve done it before, and we hope we’ll do itagain.”
