Onions gets England recall after pair are hit by injuries

Anderson’s leg injury is described at this stage as “minor”, but his unavailability would clearly be a major blow to England’s hopes of closing out a 4-0 whitewash of India.

Twenty-eight-year-old Onions has not played a Test match since new year 2010, largely because of a long-term and once career-threatening back injury.

Tremlett was named in England’s initial 13-man squad for the final match of the series, having missed both the second and third Tests at Trent Bridge and then Edgbaston – where his team-mates trounced India to take their country to the top of the International Cricket Council rankings for the first time.

But the Surrey fast bowler has succumbed again to the same back problem which ruled him out at Nottingham and then Birmingham.

Anderson has experienced tightness in his right quadriceps, and an England and Wales Cricket Board statement reported that his condition will “continue to be monitored over the next 48 hours”.

National selector Geoff Miller explained both the reasons for Tremlett’s unavailability, and Anderson’s concerns.

“Unfortunately Chris Tremlett has failed a fitness test and won’t be available for selection for the fourth npower Test, despite showing strong signs of recovery over the past few days,” he said.

“Chris’s absence, in conjunction with what appears to be a minor injury concern with Jimmy Anderson, has led to a call-up for Graham Onions as precautionary bowling cover.

“We are hopeful that Jimmy will overcome this niggle by Thursday, but more time is required before a decision on his availability can be made conclusively.

“Steven Finn is obviously in the squad and he is now joined by Graham Onions, who has been in good form for Durham since returning from a back injury at the start of the season,” said Miller.

Onions, who played three Ashes Tests to help England regain the urn in his debut summer in 2009, achieved greater fame as a No 11 batsman – twice blocking out the final over to salvage nail-biting draws on the 2009-10 tour of South Africa.

But his defiance in the second of those matches at Cape Town is his most recent act as an England player.

He was rested for the final Test of that series, as England lost at The Wanderers, and subsequently suffered an injury which ruled him out of the next campaign in Bangladesh.

Anderson has become England’s unquestioned pace spearhead over the past two years, and has so far taken 18 India wickets in three matches this summer.

Stuart Broad has heaped praise on England’s coach and captain, Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss, for making them the No 1 Test side in the world. “It is pretty special to get there from sixth place so quickly, just as it was special to be on the field on Saturday when Sreesanth poked a catch off Tim Bresnan to Kevin Pietersen in the gully,” Broad said.

“Edgbaston is always a great place to play but it was amazing at that moment. All I could hear from the crowd before that last wicket was: ‘Stand up if you’re No 1’. Brilliant.

“A huge amount of credit for this has to go to Flower and Andrew Strauss. It is the players who step on the field and have to be judged but the amount of preparation and hard work that has gone into this achievement is phenomenal.

“An England player has to front up to the press at the end of each day’s play and we were saying as we sat in the dressing room on Saturday night that each member of our backroom staff should take their turn to do that instead of us at The Oval this week.

“That way perhaps people would find out how much they all do, but sadly they did not seem too keen.

“It is the little things that make the difference. The moments that change Test matches and series.”

Team director Andy Flower will be rested for England’s one-day international against Ireland in Dublin later this month.

Flower will not travel with the squad for the one-off August 25 match, with assistant coach Richard Halsall to stand in his place, as the ECB look to manage his busy workload.

It will be the first time the father of three has missed an England game since taking charge just over two years ago.

“England team director Andy Flower will be rested from the Ireland match before rejoining the England squad ahead of the NatWest International T20 fixture against India on August 31,” an ECB statement read.

“England assistant coach Richard Halsall will stand in as team director for the Ireland match in Andy Flower’s absence.”

Flower has indicated previously that he would look to take scheduled breaks from a hectic international cricket schedule.