Vaughan gets Miller backing

Former England captain Michael Vaughan can break back into the Test side, according to national selector Geoff Miller.

Vaughan resigned after South Africa took an unassailable 2-0 series lead in the third npower Test at Edgbaston in August and opted to sit out the last match of the series.

He subsequently struggled to regain his batting form with Yorkshire and has been given a rest period and left out of the 15-man party which faces India in two Tests this December.

England’s selectors handed the 33-year-old a central contract three weeks ago and are yet to decide where in the world to dispatch Vaughan before Christmas and he could yet join the performance squad shadowing the full tour.

Vaughan will hope to rediscover his touch in time to contest a place on the tour of West Indies in the new year.

National selector Geoff Miller believes Michael Vaughan can reclaim his England Test place

Miller, who announced on Sunday the former skipper would not tour India with the Test squad, said: “We see him as an integral part of our plans.”

“He is on a 12-month contract, there is a lot of intense cricket over the next year or so. He has been playing for a 10-year period, he has had stresses as a player and also the captaincy responsibility as well.

“He deserves a bit of a break and will monitor his progress from now: when it is time for him to try to get his batting back, and decide again whether he is up to it in relation to getting back into the side.

“As we saw with Andrew Strauss 12 months ago, he came back much stronger, played really well and hopefully Michael will do the same.

“It is a possibility that he could link up with the performance squad, we could use that. There’s a lot of opportunities for him to play.

“The positive thing is for him to have his break, get his mind right, and then go and play some cricket somewhere to give him a chance of getting back into the side.

“We know what he is capable of doing when he is playing to his best.”

Middlesex’s Owais Shah is the one batsman selected for the India Test series who did not face South Africa in the summer Tests. He was chosen ahead of Ravi Bopara who was part of the squad for the final Test against the Proteas.

Miller added: “We have one cover batsman, Owais has done well this year, and the decision of the selectors was we would go in that direction.

“It is a tough decision, as they always are when it is only one person that you are talking about.”