Bresnan ready to fight for his place

The stakes cannot get much higher for a professional sportsman than an international seamer putting the joint in his bowling arm in for a ‘make-or-break’ surgery.

Thankfully for the 28-year-old Yorkshireman, the snap is back in his action for the first time since before he originally had an operation to try to cure the problem back in December 2011.

The “three or four yards” of pace he suggests he probably lost as a result of the injury are restored, and all Bresnan needs now is the chance to demonstrate it in the first Investec Test against New Zealand at Lord’s on Thursday.

That, of course, might turn out to be the hardest part in the immediate term because Bresnan’s inclusion in England’s 12-man squad is, on the face of it, as back-up to the three incumbent seamers ahead of him.

His absence from the tour of New Zealand, in which England recorded a disappointing 0-0 stalemate two months ago, means if everyone stays fit over the next two days he will have to go some in practice to leapfrog any of James Anderson, Stuart Broad or Steven Finn.

Bresnan is a ‘can-do’ cricketer and insists he has not travelled down to Lord’s – after impressing in three LV= County Championship matches so far this season in his comeback after winter surgery – just to make up the numbers.

Whether he makes the cut or not, though, he is just delighted to know he will do himself justice if selected.

Scroll back three-and-a-half months to the moments just before he went under the knife in America and, even Bresnan admits, he had inevitable doubts about his playing future.

“I think you do,” he said.

“A couple of hours before the op, it’s like, ‘Well, this could go one of two ways. I might never play for England again, or play cricket again, or I might be back better than ever’.

“You’ve got to weigh up that risk and then just sort of decide, ‘Yep, eff it’ and get on with it really.”

The consensus was that bustling Bresnan was a yard down on pace the last time he played for his country although he disagrees.

“I probably lost three or four yards. But I feel as though I’ve got that back,” he said.

“I can sit here and say whatever...but it’s just as easy to show you.

“Without sounding over-confident, I can spin you a yarn and say. ‘It’s all brilliant and roses and everything’ – or I can just get out on the park and show you exactly what my pace is like.

“I’ve not been in front of a speed-gun, but it feels good.”

It is not so long ago that his bowling arm felt anything but ‘good’.

“It got to the point where sometimes it was hurting and sometimes it wasn’t. Sometimes it was stiff, sometimes it wasn’t,” he said.

“There were just a lot of variables and I found it difficult especially to prepare for games – knowing it could potentially be sore for the next day or so. It was definitely something that needed sorting out.

“I don’t think anything could stop me in my tracks when you’re out in the middle and you’ve got the adrenaline and you’ve got the England shirt on.

“You want to run through a brick walls for that.

“But obviously it’s just not nice doing it a) not to the best of your ability and b) in a little bit of discomfort.”

Bresnan did not brood over the likely consequences if surgery did not work.

“I’m not really a deep thinker,” he said.

“But it does flash through your head and then you think, ‘Yes, let’s just get on with it’.”

The same sentiment, broadly, applies again this week.

“Since I’m here, I might as well think I can do the job,” he said.

“I’m obviously fully-fit. There’s been no reaction, no ill-effects from the operation. So I’m back better than I was before the first operation.

“I’d love to play. I’m down here. I’m not here to carry the drinks. I’m here to play in the game, throw my hat in the ring for selection.”

If he is given the opportunity to prove his point to captain Alastair Cook, so much the better.

“The next two practice days will probably tell the management, Cookie, a lot about where I’m at and what I can do,” Bresnan added.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the net rota goes up and I’m bowling at him. That’s one of the things that Andy (Flower) likes to do.

“But I’m just happy to be back playing cricket...pain free, and somewhere like the best of my ability. It doesn’t matter who I bowl at in the nets.”

New Zealand can press on with Plan A for the first Test against England after scans cleared frontline seamer Tim Southee to play at Lord’s.

Southee limped out of the tour match against England Lions at Grace Road with a sore left toe three days ago and has since seen a specialist and undergone scans in London.

Without him, the Kiwis would have had to rely on their two left-arm seamers Trent Boult and Neil Wagner, who both impressed in the stalemate against England in New Zealand two months ago, and fit-again Doug Bracewell.

Twenty-four-year-old Southee is their most tried-and-tested, however, with 24 Tests under his belt and coach Mike Hesson was able to announce yesterday that he will be available after all on Thursday.