Henry Blofeld: England need to give youth a chance ahead of Ashes series

Although the England selectors have given the impression – which inevitably has been heightened by the spate of injuries – that they are lurching from Test match to Test match, it is most important that the example of Simon Jones at Lord's should encourage them to focus more clearly on this winter's tour to Australia. England will then be trying to win the Ashes for the first time since Mike Gatting's side was successful in 1986-87.

We are now more than halfway through the summer with the best part of four Test matches and the triangular one-day series consigned to history. Surprisingly, the temptation to play those who took huge steps forward under Rod March at the Academy in Adelaide last winter, some of whom will surely be needed this winter, has been largely resisted even though they can now point with relief to Jones.

Somewhat reluctantly they have dabbled with Alex Tudor, in both Test and one-day cricket, with encouraging results too, until injury again took over. Jones has been handled with greater care and sensitivity. They called him up for the last two Tests against Sri Lanka to enable him to sniff the atmosphere before picking him for the current Lord's Test. But would he have played if Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Tudor had not been injured?

The young batsmen who will be so essential to England in Australia where cricket is a younger man's game than it is in England, have so far been ignored. Ian Bell's lack of consistent runs for Warwickshire has counted against him. When Marcus Trescothick recently broke his thumb the selectors were presented with a great chance to bring in a young opener just as they had called up Trescothick himself in 2000 after Nick Knight had been injured. Robert Key, the Kent opener and another Academician, seemed well worth a chance.

There are other young batsmen like Owais Shah who is scoring runs again after a poor start to the season, Andy Strauss, also of Middlesex, Jamie Troughton who batted so stirringly with Bell in the Benson and Hedges Cup final. Mark Wagh and Nick Peng are two others that must have come under consideration although the early bloom of Peng's career has faded a fraction.

What the selectors must surely do even now is to go for at least one young batsman whom they perceive as having the requisite class and give him a chance later in this series. Backing class was the procedure Bobby Simpson followed when he took over an Australian side which was in tatters in the mid 1980s and its success was self-evident.

As it is, the selectors, for whom in real terms we must read as Duncan Fletcher and Nasser Hussain, have thus far pursued a safety first policy with mainly the short term in mind. They have gone back this summer to John Crawley and Dominic Cork whom they must have known could only bring them short term gains.

On the last tour of Australia, Crawley played in three Tests and suffered badly at the hands of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie who stuck relentlessly to a line on and just outside the off stump where Crawley is so fallible. His only score of any sort came in the final Test on the usual spinners pitch in Sydney. Of course, Shane Warne will do plenty of bowling this winter, but it is the quick men who will be called up to do the business with Crawley.

On the same tour Cork played in two Tests and took four wickets without ever posing the threat it was hoped. His arm was lower and his outswinger was no longer a weapon which is more or less the scenario now. If he does swing the ball, it starts to move immediately it leaves the hand which causes no problem.

The selection of these two players has prevented them from blooding more of the younger players although mercifully Jones and not Cork got the nod at Lord's. Crawley, on the other hand, has ensured with his runs at Lord's, that he will be chosen for the second Test at Trent Bridge. If he goes on filling his boots against India over the course of the rest of the summer, selection for Australia will presumably follow and McGrath and co will be rubbing their hands with glee.

Selectors, like players, must at times show that they are prepared to take a calculated risk. The present lot seem strangely reluctant, especially when they must know that with the same mixture as when England last toured Australia, they will have as little chance of regaining the Ashes as they have of holding a tea party on the summit of Mount Everest.

They need to take a gamble with one or two young players who might suddenly shock the Australians into defeat as Frank Tyson, Colin Cowdrey and Peter May did in 1954-55. We will never know of what the present crop of young hopefuls might be capable until they are given a chance – and time is running out. Let's hope Jones's performance will now make them braver men.