Moores keeps door open to stars

Steve Harmison has been in fine form for Durham of late

England coach Peter Moores insists the door is certainly not closed on Ashes-winning duo Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison.

Australian-raised bowler Darren Pattinson was called upon over both centrally-contracted pacemen in the team for last week’s second npower Test.

Both men were dropped after defeat to New Zealand in Hamilton four months ago and have barely had a look in since, culminating in both Pattinson and Chris Tremlett being reserves for the heavy defeat to South Africa at Headingley Carnegie.

But asked if he thought a line had been drawn on their careers, Moores said: “No, I don’t, because that would be a foolish thing to do.

“You’ve got two experienced bowlers out there who have played a lot for England and bowled very well in the past.

“If they are bowling well and deserve to be picked then they should be in frame.

“They are experienced players who are desperate to play again, which is great. That’s a good thing.”

Hoggard and Harmison both have in excess of 200 Test victims, with the former just two shy of the 250-mark.

Despite the second match of the npower series being held at his home ground in Leeds, however, swing merchant Hoggard lost out in selection to Pattinson, 29, when Ryan Sidebottom’s back niggle deemed a fill-in necessary.

Moores added: “Certainly there has been a lot of talk about Darren’s bowling but for a lad on debut he did all right.

“It was a tough wicket to bowl on and we saw lots of people bowl out there and look pretty innocuous at times.

“To be fair to him he stuck to his guns and went at threes and got a couple of wickets like everybody else did - nobody really ripped it up.

“He got in because he bowled really well for Notts and he has worked hard to get himself in,” Moores added.

“He earned his right to have a go and has played in what was a really tough Test match.

“Because we were light on runs, there was no pressure on the South Africans to score at any rate and they just sat in on a slow deck. It would be interesting if he would be viewed the same if he was a younger man or a more well-known name.”