White still a doubt – Hussain to bat at four
Craig White has been described as
CricInfo16-May-2001Craig White has been described as “doubtful” by the England management team prior to the First Test against Pakistan tomorrow.White had a scan on his back yesterday which did not rule him out, but continued stiffness in the area is still inhibiting the Yorkshire all-rounder.He will undergo a fitness test today before a final decision is made.
Nasser Hussain
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Nasser Hussain also confirmed that he will bat at number four in this game, providing Michael Vaughan with an opportunity to move up to three in the order.The move won the approval of team-mate Graham Thorpe.”Nasser’s made the right decision to drop down the England order because it was becoming obvious to those close to him that he was struggling to handle the burden of batting at three and captaining the side,” Thorpe told cricket4.com.”Nasser needs to give himself a break from the incessant pressure that has been building up over the past 12 months and going in at four, with Michael Vaughan ahead of him and me at five will help him.”At the moment as soon as he steps off the field he has to whip the pads on and start concentrating on batting.”In Sri Lanka he was bouncing off the walls with the pressure of leading England and it was impossible for him to get his mind set on batting.”Thorpe also revealed that it was Hussain’s century at Kandy that enabled the England captain to move down the order without fear of it being interpreted as a sign of weakness.”He first spoke to me about it after the Kandy Test match in Sri Lanka when he scored that brilliant hundred against Murali and Co,” continued Thorpe.”Up until that point he had been saying it was a sign of weakness to drop down the order, but it’s as if with that century he had proved to everyone, and himself that he was still capable of scoring runs for his country.”After that match he looked back to his old self and you could tell in his face that he felt he had showed everyone he could captain England superbly at the same time as score a century in a Test match.”He’s not the kind of person that you can tell to take their foot off the gas but I knew he was aware that the situation was taking a lot out of him.”It then came as no surprise when he rang me a few weeks ago to say he was going to do things differently this summer. He is an emotional character and you can tell he is thinking all the time about what is best for the team, but in doing so he has been unable to concentrate fully on the job of batting,”