Keeping their powder dry

Is it really just 12 months since Andrew Strauss first came to the attention of the nation's photographers? Freddie Flintoff may be bigger and Kevin Pietersen may be brasher, but has any other cricketer ever become so familiar so soon? From the moment that Michael Vaughan twisted his knee in that freak incident in the Lord's nets, Strauss has become the snappers' most reliable source of revenue - that compact stance, that withering cut, that slightly self-conscious punch of delight as he rattles along to another Test century.

And yet, so far this season, Strauss has been plastered across the papers in an entirely unfamiliar pose. Shoulders hunched, stumps splayed, head bowed. A grand total of 108 runs in seven innings for Middlesex, with a top score of 37, has prompted Shane Warne to doubt his credentials as an Ashes matchwinner, and as his average nosedives so too, it would appear, do England's summer prospects.

But appearances, as any cricket fan knows, count for diddly-squat in the heat of battle. The dreamiest technique in the game never did Mark Ramprakash any favours when the going got tough; Shivnarine Chanderpaul, on the other hand, boasts a Test average of 46.24 from 84 matches and can have few complaints about the effectiveness of his pincers-to-the-wind crab impressions. As any fool knows, Test cricket is all about temperament, and for that reason, nothing that happens between now and the start of the international season can be taken with anything other than a big pinch of salt.

That won't silence the dulcet scrape of axes being sharpened in county press-boxes, of course, and nor should it, because the Ashes - lest we've forgotten - are still two-and-a-half months away. For all the goodwill in the world, Bangladesh will go only so far towards filling the nation's refreshingly insatiable appetite. But in the five or so years since England's cricketers last played such an active role in an early county season, the nature of their employment has changed beyond recognition. These ten weeks are the nearest thing to carefree cricket that many of the squad are likely to get until they retire from the game. It is little wonder that most of them are bringing up the rear in the national averages.

The reasons are not hard to compile. First and foremost, they have a coach, Duncan Fletcher, who has been openly dismissive of the merits of county cricket, and where he leads, his charges are sure to follow. Even Strauss, whose 12 Tests have yielded five centuries and 1246 runs, has owned up to a lackadaisical approach when those cameras are packed away.

"In Test cricket, once you've got to 30 or 40, you realise you have to go on, but for Middlesex, my conversion rate is not that great," said Strauss during the South Africa series, and he was not exaggerating. Outside Tests, he has mustered a grand total of 11 first-class hundreds in 86 games. "Subconsciously you can get a little bit easy on yourself, especially when you're in a good run of form or have played a lot of games in a row." In South Africa, both those factors hit like a heat-wave.

There is competition for places in the England team, but it is a healthy brand that encourages challenges to the established order, instead of the old dog-eat-dog mentality that bred such selfish attitudes in the 1980s and 1990s. Consequently, the batsman with the most to gain this summer, Ian Bell, is riding high in the averages and earning due recognition for his prowess, while the man with the most to lose, Robert Key, is ensuring that he does not surrender his spot without a fight. Which leaves Kevin Pietersen, the semi-incumbent, neither advancing nor diminishing his Test claims. On this early evidence, he may yet have to wait in line.

As for the rest, well, there's really no need to panic. Of course, it would be reassuring if everyone was churning out big hundreds day-in, day-out, but the England team is such a tightly-run ship these days that, unless injury intervenes, five of the top six are already set in stone. Some would call it complacency. Others - Mike Selvey in The Guardian for instance - would prefer to call it a comfort zone. And let's face it, with 12 wins out of 16 Tests, they've done enough to earn a bit of respite.

There are grey areas, of course, and most of them surround the future of Graham Thorpe. But in his case, it will be his inability to take the field because of his back spasms, rather than an inability to score any runs, that will be causing the most alarm. In any case, he needs only to look at the example that Mike Atherton set in 1999, when his chronic back condition forced him out of the World Cup squad and, in many people's eyes, to the brink of retirement.

Athers was a notorious county skeptic and hadn't scored a hundred for Lancashire in over a year. But now, in order to secure a central contract and save his international career, he was forced to perform at a level that, by and large, he held in contempt. His response was an innings of 268 not out against Glamorgan - the highest of his career. No-one doubted him again after that, just as no-one in the England hierarchy doubts Thorpe now. At least, not to his face and certainly never publicly

England's attitude towards county cricket has improved immeasurably since those unhealthy days, but the principle remains the same. The game is there to serve the greater good, and not the other way around. Let those with a point to prove (Steve Harmison) or a spring in their step (Ashley Giles) get stuck in by all means, but in this summer of all summers, the prudent players will be keeping their powder dry.