Wales is my country, Glamorgan is my county.But here I am, a member of the England squad and I can’t get a game for my county XI Yet I need to bowl to find rhythm and fluency You can perhaps sense my frustration here. The county decided they could not find room for me in their Championship team for the match at Cardiff against Hampshire.I heard from my friend, the Glamorgan physio, that they would not accommodate me on Wednesday night after I had been told I had not made the final cut for the Test side. A voice message on my mobile later from the coach confirmed that they would not alter their side and were going in with two spinners and three seamers. England are virtually out of sight, they should win some time tomorrow.

But the possibility of another calypso collapso today should not be ruled out. The home side should already be thinking in terms of a whitewash West Indies may not know what to think.. I was shocked and disappointed to be left out of the side. It left me in a state of confusion, of not knowing quite what to do or where to turn, but knowing I had to speak to somebody to try to get some sort of explanation.

Vaughan failed to clear Chris Gayle at midwicket, again off Lawson, who had taken three wickets in 26 balls.This potential mess was cleaned up in characteristic no-nonsense fashion by Marcus Trescothick, who kept it simple. These sides have been in competition for most of this year, and when the chips have been down, England have picked them up every time.But it was not auspicious batting, and demonstrates that against sides who have a clue what they are doing (oh, Australia, say) England could still pay a heavy penalty. Andrew Strauss, who presumably only comes to the party in Test matches at Lord’s, nicked a wide one that was Jermaine Lawson’s second ball. Key drove lamely to mid-on, and despite his double hundred in the First Test now finds himself in urgent need of runs again. Flintoff grabbed an excellent catch off Giles at leg slip with razor-sharp reactions.