I fear for Simon Kerrigan: Michael Vaughan

Simon Kerrigan

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has said that he ‘fears’ for Simon Kerrigan’s career after England selectors included the Lancashire left-arm spinner in the 14-man squad to face India at Lord’s for the 2nd of the 5-match Test series.

"I fear for Simon Kerrigan," Vaughan told Radio 5 live Sport. The 39-year-old, questioning the logic behind the move, said that Kerrigan is still not ready for the demands of international cricket.

Kerrigan, who has 213 first-class wickets in 104 innings with 11 five-fors, has got 28 scalps this season at 34.25 runs per dismissal.

Can the rookie left-arm spinner handle the class of Indian batsmen?

The 25-year-old made his Test debut, against Australia, last season at The Oval, and proved to be very expensive in his first innings; it led to him not being used by captain Alastair Cook in the second innings after getting hammered by Shane Watson in his first spell. Up against even better plays of spin now, Vaughan said that he might not be ready to handle another failure.

Vaughan, who led Australia to the historic 2005 Ashes series victory, said: "He's not pulled up any trees for Lancashire this season. Why rush the lad back in?”

"Throwing him out to bowl at Lord's against an Indian batting line-up who can play spin with their eyes shut... I just think is unfair.

"If the second one goes badly, he can never come back from that again. If he goes out on Thursday and it's like that situation against Watson, he won't come back from that for a long time," added Vaughan.

Graeme Swann’s prediction:

Former England off-spinner Graeme Swann, who retired midway through the last Ashes series leaving a big void to fill, predicted that the spinner is more likely to play at Lord’s.

"I think he'll play. By all accounts, he's bowled very well in the nets and Peter Moores rates him very highly. Moeen’s just not up to it as a spinner at the moment," said Swann.

India, despite known for their superior ability to play spinners, have given away wickets to the slow bowlers on their debut: Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis (8 for 132), South Africa’s Paul Harris (5 for 179), Australia’s Jason Krejza (12 for 358), Swann himself (4 for 145) and, most recently, Australia’s Glenn Maxwell (4 for 127) prove the trend.

Last week at the Trent Bridge Test, Moeen Ali, too, accounted for three wickets against the run of play in India’s second innings.