ENGLISH TEST SIDE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27096, 20 July 1953, Page 9

ENGLISH TEST SIDE

Wardle And Trueman Dropped (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 1?. The Yorkshire fast bowler, F. Trueman, arid the Yorkshire left-hand spinner, J. H. Wardle, have been omitted from the 12 players selected to represent England against Australia in the fourth test, which will start at Leeds next Thursday. They have been replaced by J. B. Statham (Lancashire) ahd G. A. R. Lock (Surrey). The team as announced today is: L. Hutton (Yorkshire), captain. R. T. Simpson (Nottinghamshire). D. C. S. Compton (Middlesex). T. W. Graveney (Gloucestershire). T. E. Bailey (Essex). T. G. Evans (Kent). G. A. R. Lock (Surrey). A. V. Bedser (Surrey). W. Watson (Yorkshire). W. J. Edrich (Middlesex). J. C. Laker (Surrey). J. B. Statham (Lancashire). Lock, a left-hand spinner, will play in a second XI match on Monday and Tuesday to make certain of his fitness. Lock was chosen for the first and second tests, but was unable to play because of an injured finger. Should Lock again be found unfit, Wardle would be invited to join the team. Before the season opened, Lock was regarded ts a key man for the tests, and that still could be the position. In addition to his skill as a bowler, Lock is one of the best slip or short-leg fieldsmen in the country. Fast-medium Bowler Statham, a fast-«nedium bowler, played in the second test or the present series, and took two wickets at an average cost of 44 runs. Writing in the “Daily Telegraph,’’ E. W. Swanton says that the job of the England selectors is only half done in their choice of the playere to meet Australia in the fourth test at Leeds. “The decision to whom the last place should be given is all-important Batsmen or bowlers?” he says. “And if it is to be hoped that Hutton and his advisers plump for a fifth bowler, which batsman must go?" Ross Hall, in the “Daily Mirror,” says: “Some day someone will explain to Wardle and Trueman whv they were dropped for the fourth test Is it a justifiable risk to play Lock at Leeds when the deputy, Wardle, has done such a workmanlike job? There is no reason why Lock and Wardle should not both be in the England team. Obviouslv the selectors have no great faith in any of our fast men.”

Charles Bray, in tbe “Daily Herald,* says that England must drop a batsman in the Leeds test. “The selectors have left themselvea the old problem to solve on tbe morning of the match—to play five bowlers and weaken the batting, or play six batsmen and weaken the bowling.”