Is Ramprakash the man to save England?

With England's batting order lying in ruins who can they turn to in their hour of need? Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph believes he has the answer.

Acknowledging that playing Ravi Bopara at three has not worked he thinks it is time to recall an old warhorse.

"He [Bopara] has to be dropped down the order if he is going to play, and a gnarled veteran brought in at three: and there is only one gnarled veteran around who is willing to play Test cricket (as Marcus Trescothick has retired), and that is Mark Ramprakash," he says.

Ramprakash's Test career was a disappointment. He played 52 Tests but only managed two centuries and averaged under 30.

He played his last game for England in New Zealand in 2002, but Berry thinks it is time to give the old stager a last hurrah at his favourite venue.

"If the fifth Test was going to be staged at any other ground Ramprakash could easily be overwhelmed, as he always has been at Lord's," says Berry.  "But the Oval is his ground, the place where he is nearest to being at ease, the stage on which he scored one of his two Test centuries, when history set itself up to be repeated: in 1997 he was called up at short notice and for once made the most of his prodigious talent."

He also notes that Ramprakash, who won Strictly Come Dancing in 2006, plays for the right county in Surrey. "This Ashes series has conformed exactly to the pattern of Ashes cricket ever since it began. The batsmen who have been most successful for England have all come from Yorkshire and Surrey."

And the final reason - Ramprakash actually has a decent Test average against the Aussies. "Ramprakash, as a Middlesex player, averaged 42 against Australia — before moving to Surrey. A desperate one-off measure, as Ramprakash is 39, but who else?"

David Gower in the Sunday Times has a different idea - replacing Bopara and Ian Bell with Jonathan Trott and another former England batsman.

"I would love to see Robert Key back in the number three slot," he suggests. ·