July 07  
Hussain to resist rotation temptation 

LONDON: England cricket captain Nasser Hussain has revealed squad rotation will not be greatly used during the rest of the NatWest Series. 

Victory for India in Saturday's match against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston will ensure they meet England in the final at Lord's next Saturday. 

If the identity of the finalists are already known there will be an opportunity for the selectors to experiment. 

But Hussain is reluctant to give international caps out for the sake of it and believes it would send the wrong message to the remainder of the squad if they followed that path. Surrey fast bowler Alex Tudor and Gloucestershire off-spinner Jeremy Snape are the only players yet to feature, although Michael Vaughan was denied the chance to bat in Thursday's washed-out match against India at Chester-le-Street. 

"Tudor has got every chance of playing at some stage, but it's not just a case of giving out games for the sake of it," said Hussain. 

"You have to give the people you have first selected a good chance. "We've done that with Matthew Hoggard, we've done that with James Kirtley and we're doing it with Darren Gough and Ashley Giles - you have to give them a fair crack. 

"When Tudor gets his chance then he'll get a fair crack. It's not a case of 'Dear Jim, will you fix it for me to play for England?', you have to earn it." 

England have only made one rotational change, bringing Vaughan to give Graham Thorpe an opportunity to rest the ankle he injured in the preparation for the last Test at Old Trafford nearly three weeks ago. "He's not too serious," added Hussain. 

"All the way through this tournament he's not been 100 per cent, so we saw the other day as a good chance to rest him on a big ground and generally rotate players to get Vaughan in."