Key aiming to knock Pakistan confidence by AFP

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Player:	RWT Key
Event:	Pakistan in British Isles 2006

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DateLine: 6th July 2006

 

England A captain Robert Key hopes his men can do their bit for the senior side, and enhance their own Test claims, by derailing Pakistan's otherwise smooth run-up to next week's first Test against England at Lord's.

 

Key leads a strong A team - nine of the XI have international experience - against Pakistan in a four-day match starting at Canterbury on Thursday in what will be the tourists' final fixture before the four-Test series gets underway in London on July 13.

 

Earlier in the season England A thrashed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets - and a month later Jon Lewis, one of the home team's stars in that match, won his first Test cap.

 

"Our job is to put the touring side on the back foot - which is generally what seems to happen to us every time we go overseas and play A sides," said Key, one of half-a-dozen Test players involved.

 

"It also gives us a chance to stake a claim for the full side.

 

"This might be a bit tougher than our first match. I don't think this pitch will be anything like the Worcester one," added Key, who will be playing on his Kent home ground.

 

"By the end of the week I think I might have been able to tweak a wicket on that one!

 

"But when we beat Sri Lanka it was a good thing. Everyone started to talk about them and how poorly they were playing and they probably went into that Test on a bit of a downer after being nailed.

 

"It didn't quite work like that throughout the series though because they got some confidence back."

 

Sri Lanka clung on for a 1-1 draw in a series that England should have wrapped up before the Trent Bridge finale despite their injury problems.

 

Such is the length of England's sick list, some of the members of Key's team could find themselves playing Test cricket before England head out to Australia for their Ashes defence later in the year.

 

Ian Bell and Alastair Cook are already in the Test squad while fellow batsman Key, 27, is having to wait for another chance at the highest level.

 

Key, who featured in the 2002-03 Ashes series, lost his England place after last year's tour to South Africa and is not yet fully fit for international duty following a major shoulder re-construction in the winter.

 

"I am getting better, but it is supposed to be 12 months until I am back throwing properly," said Key, who featured in the whitewashing of West Indies on home soil two years ago.

 

"At the start of the (English) summer I wasn't able to throw at all. But now I can ping it in from the edge of the inner ring.

 

"Getting to throw again is a big thing for me - I have to make sure when I start getting runs, if my name comes up in the pecking order, that shoulder isn't a problem.

 

"If I had a bigger start to this summer it would have been touch and go whether they would have been able to pick me because of it."

(Article: Copyright © 2006 AFP)