With just the final test at Lord's to go, the England selectors will soon have the test after that on their minds. The small matter of the first Ashes test against Australia at Brisbane, which starts on 25th November.
Despite a poor performance at The Oval, the XI who have featured in the three tests to date against Pakistan are racing certainties to be included in the Ashes party to be named some time in September. But spots are up for grabs for extra pacemen and a second spinner.
It is a big season for Chris Tremlett and Monty Panesar with their respective new counties Surrey and Sussex. Tremlett played three tests against India in 2007 and did reasonably well, but since then inconsistency and above all injury, has seen him slip off the selectors radar. A feeling that he lacks the inner fire of a Stuart Broad has also not helped his cause. But his season for Surrey is getting better and better and match figures of 38.1-12-87-8 last week against Worcestershire seem to suggest he is back to his best. He now has 38 championship wickets at 19.6 this season. Is it too late for him as far as England are concerned? Or will the selectors take a gamble on a bowler whose height and bounce would seem to be ideal for Australian conditions?
Panesar would seem to be the favourite for the second spinners role ahead of the untried Adil Rashid. After an annus horribilis in 2009, Panesar seems to have got his mojo back at Sussex where his 43 wickets at 24.11 have helped Sussex top the Division 2 table. Like Tremlett, Monty too is coming into form at the right time and last week took match figures of seven for 122 as Derbyshire were humbled at Horsham.
Elsewhere in our County Player off the Year table, Steve Finn extends his lead despite a poor game at The Oval with second placed Rashid only bowling nine overs on a seamers wicket at Chester-le-Street. Other players to shine in the latest round of county championship matches were James Hildreth, who continued his fine recent form with 84 and 59 in Somerset's victory over Essex, and Andrew Gale, who rediscovered his early season form with a rapid 70 not out in Yorkshire's run chase against Durham.
The latest table is below:
| Player | County | Played | Points | Points awarded* | ||
| Finn | Middlesex | 11 | 203 | County Appearance | 5 | |
| Rashid | Yorkshire | 13 | 164 | Lions Appearance | 10 | |
| Kieswetter | Somerset | 24 | 162 | Test appearance | 20 | |
| Hildreth | Somerset | 13 | 160 | T20I/ODI/Lions one day | 3 | |
| Taylor | Leics | 16 | 143 | Score of 40-49 | 3 | |
| Bopara | Essex | 14 | 130 | 50-99 | 5 | |
| Gale | Yorkshire | 15 | 130 | 100-199 | 10 | |
| Panesar | Sussex | 13 | 112 | 200+ | 20 | |
| Hamilton-Brown | Surrey | 13 | 104 | 3 wickets in an innings | 3 | |
| Stokes | Durham | 12 | 104 | 4 wickets | 5 | |
| Woakes | Warks | 14 | 103 | 5 or 6 wickets | 10 | |
| Northeast | Kent | 13 | 89 | 7wickets+ | 20 | |
| Tremlett | Surrey | 9 | 86 | Catches | 1 | |
| Hales | Notts | 8 | 69 | Stumpings | 3 | |
| Borthwick | Durham | 6 | 37 | |||
| Wainwright | Yorkshire | 5 | 29 |
Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fared over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We later extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix.
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