Century display seals spot for Morgan but Shahzad misses out

Morgan muddied the waters a little with his casual mid-match revelation that he would head back to the Indian Premier League should England omit him against Sri Lanka at Cardiff.

The selectors do not appear to have been too impressed with those remarks – albeit a no objection certificate for him to take part for the whole of the IPL is thought to be in place. But it was not significant enough to stop him edging out Ravi Bopara in the 12-man squad which was named yesterday morning and also features Steven Finn as the extra bowler ahead of Yorkshire’s Ajmal Shahzad.

“He has not played much if any four-day cricket (this year), but he just showed what his character was in that innings,” national selector Geoff Miller said of Morgan’s 193 in the Lions’ first innings against Sri Lanka at Derby.

“It’s not the end of the world for anybody else knocking on that door, but that was good enough to show us he was the one to take the place.

“The innings tilted the balance, but he was never completely out of it at any stage. It was a very big sway.”

Bopara’s ability to bowl the medium-pace overs that Collingwood habitually got through, or maybe a few more, was a consideration – but not in the end a telling one.

“It leaves you a seam bowler light,” said Miller. “But we still feel we have got an attack that can combat most if not all teams in all conditions.”

Into that attack, potentially, comes Finn who, realistically, is more likely to play the understudy for James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett.

His elevation ahead of Shahzad is a minor surprise, given the latter’s similarity to his injured Yorkshire team-mate Tim Bresnan. But Miller has no qualms about filling up the seam quota with three very tall bowlers behind spearhead Anderson, presumably on the premise that Sri Lanka may be vulnerable to the steeper bounce on pitches more responsive than the ones they are used to at home.

“You’ve got to take the conditions and the surfaces into consideration – but you’ve also got to take the opponents into consideration,” he said.

“We established what kind of bowler we wanted, plus the fact he [Finn] played Test matches in Australia as well.

“We don’t close the door on anybody, but there has got to be a reason and a policy how they get into the side. It can’t just be guesswork. We don’t do that.”

Both Morgan and Bopara were among the last-day victims of Dilhara Fernando as he led the fightback in Derby to see Sri Lanka pull off a remarkable 38-run victory over the Lions ahead of the opening Test.

Fernando (3-33) and then Nuwan Pradeep (4-29) completed the job to help Sri Lanka bowl the Lions out for 183.

The hosts, who had enforced the follow-on on Saturday, bowled Sri Lanka out for 448 yesterday morning to leave themselves needing an apparently routine 222 in 73 overs for victory.

But Fernando produced a devastating to create the platform from which the tourists were able to go on and win.