Long road back to full fitness has pointed Onions toward Test recall

Graham Onions was there at the start of England’s assault on the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings – now he wants a piece of the action as an official world-beater.

The 29-year-old is in the frame again as England prepare for their first Test since being presented with the ICC’s silver mace as the top-ranked Test team.

Onions, whose international career was interrupted almost two years ago and then put in grave doubt by a back injury and subsequent surgery, was added to England’s squad to face Pakistan in three Tests in the United Arab Emirates after Yorkshire’s Tim Bresnan had to fly home with post-operative elbow pain.

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The Durham seamer has great empathy with Bresnan, or any other injury victim, after his own experiences which left him wondering whether he would have a chance to play for his country or even his county again.

He will therefore count his blessings that the long road back to full fitness has led him at last into the reckoning for a Test recall and the chance to add to his eight Test caps.

“Being here and spending another three weeks out here with the best coaches and the best players is something in 2009 I didn’t really think I would do,” he said. “To be standing here is something really special for me.”

Onions comes into a muddled equation for the team to face a Pakistan Cricket Board XI today in the final warm-up match before the first Test in a week’s time.

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The selectors will need updates on the fitness of Graeme Swann – set for a scan yesterday on a sore thigh – and Onions’s fellow pace hopeful Chris Tremlett, who has an eye infection, before they can name their line-up for the three-day fixture.

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