RACING: The two most difficult things to read in English cricket yesterday were the Headingley pitch and Graham Thorpe's state of mind. Pity the man who has to try to read both. Pity Nasser Hussain.
Hussain yesterday kept the door open for the 33-year-old left-hander, regarded as the side's leading batsman, by giving him a week's deadline to decide whether to put his name forward to play in the Ashes series.
Thorpe's decision to follow up his open-ended break from international cricket by withdrawing from the rest of Surrey's season has encouraged the widespread belief that he will not tour Australia this winter. Certainly, Surrey have suggested as much.
Yet Hussain, only a day after England's coach, Duncan Fletcher, had sought an update from Thorpe about his mental state, and with the selection of the bulk of the Ashes squad only a week away, refuses to accept as much.
"We are not good enough to rule anyone out of the Ashes series just because they are having personal problems," he said. "It will be up to Graham to give us a phone call to tell us whether he is available for selection. If he is, it would be a very difficult decision for us."
If the Leeds pitch proves to England's liking in the third Test, a winning series against India beckons. Hussain, England's captain, loves Headingley's unpredictability, and is fond of Thorpe, endlessly understanding towards the marital breakdown which threatens to end his international career prematurely. But neither were offering him much solace.
Still, at least Steve Harmison's replacement bat has arrived (the thief who stole the original from his car outside St James' Park would have found it in mint condition), so all was not wrong with the world.
Given continued good weather, which would swell advance bookings, Headingley's attendances should just quieten suggestions from England and Wales Cricket Board officials that their Test future is at risk. About 9,000 tickets have been sold today, with Friday full, and Saturday approaching 12,000. It is hardly a triumph, but such is the disarray at Yorkshire at the moment that we should be grateful to see two sets of stumps in the ground come 11 o'clock.
"I can't believe there is talk about taking Test cricket away from this ground," Hussain said. "Leeds has tradition, partisan support and wonderful, unpredictable cricket."
England will field Andrew Flintoff, unless his injured groin, which requires a hernia operation the moment the series is settled, clamps up overnight. Hussain recognises that he is far from fit.
"Freddie's groin is probably the worst it has been all summer," he said. "If he plays, then he will have to be sympathetically managed, with no more than about 10 overs a day. He tends to bowl the hard overs, and is a great enthusiast, so that is not easily done."
England would prefer to play a spinner - India would prefer to play two, in which case Sanjay Bangar's seam-bowling ability would mean he pipped Shiv Sunder Das at opener - but the discovery this morning of a damp pitch, a deteriorating weather forecast and an ailing Flintoff might cause Ashley Giles to lose out at the last.
"It's impossible to guess what will happen here," bemoaned Hussain. So here is a prediction: one batting side, at least, will either face humiliation or enjoy a harvest of runs. Headingley loves to deal in extremes.
Guardian Service
ENGLAND (probable): N Hussain (Essex, capt), MP Vaughan (Yorkshire), RWT Key (Kent), MA Butcher (Surrey), JP Crawley (Hampshire), AJ Stewart (Surrey, wkt), A Flintoff (Lancashire), AJ Tudor (Surrey), AF Giles (Warwickshire), AR Caddick (Somerset), MJ Hoggard (Yorkshire).
INDIA (probable): SC Ganguly (capt), S Bangar, V Sehwag, RS Dravid, S Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, PA Patel (wkt), A Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, A Nehra.
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