Come in number seven

If the cap fits: Is Ramprakash set for a Test return?

England announce their squad for the first Test against Pakistan on Sunday. Chairman of selectors David Graveney has hinted they are looking for an extra batsman outside the centrally-contracted players.

BBC Sport Online's Thrasy Petropoulos considers the leading contenders.

---

Mark Ramprakash

Ramprakash made himself an easy target for criticism with his winter move to Surrey, but he has emerged a more relaxed, contented cricketer, characteristics which have been visibly absent during his 42 Test matches.

Even the doubters were left breathless with his first innings of the season, a brilliant 146 in 231 balls against Kent. There followed an innings of 97 not out against Essex in the Benson & Hedges Cup in front of England coach Duncan Fletcher.

He also has a reputation for scoring runs with the tail against Australia, though he has been criticised for not showing more aggression.

---

Nick Knight

Knight has succeded down the order

Though he made his name in county cricket as an opening batsman, Knight's only Test hundred came from the middle order and he once batted at number seven for England, albeit with little success.

A double century in his first championship match last season earned him a recall against Zimbabwe, and he was in the runs again in Warwickshire's first match this year, with 140 against Hampshire.

But despite showing great fight against the West Indies, scoring 26 and 34 in the innings defeat at Edgbaston, and being replaced only because he broke a finger in the second Test, it was clear that certain technical frailties remained outside off stump.

---

Graeme Hick

Hick: Another recall?

Hick has been dropped from the Test side more times than a cat has lives but, after being written off with his poor winter showing, he could be in line for another recall.

He performed the number seven role for England against Australia two winters ago with mixed results.

Out for a second-ball duck in the second Test in Perth, he went on to crash 68 off 73 balls in the second dig.

But the ploy of playing a seventh batsman had no positive influence over England's overall performance in the series. Despite Hick's second-innings runs, England lost that Test by seven wickets.

And, with Dean Headley being used as a nightwatchman, Hick dropped down to number eight in the next Test - surely a wasted position for any batsman - and was out first ball to Glenn McGrath.

England lost that Test by 205 runs.

---

Mark Butcher

Butcher: Back in contention

When it first emerged that England's selectors were on the look out for a seventh batsman, attention once again turned to Mark Butcher.

In the wilderness since the last Ashes tour, he nonetheless has a good Ashes record, with match-saving innings at Lord's and Brisbane.

But Butcher has so far failed to respond with runs, falling for a duck in Surrey's championship opener against Kent.

And after failing to reach 30 in two Benson & Hedges Cup matches, he was dropped from Surrey's one-day side.

---

John Crawley

Crawley: A-team captain

An indifferent England A tour, and a scratchy start to the season for Lancashire, make Crawley an outsider for Test selection.

But of all the recent recognised batsmen used by England at number seven Crawley has been one of the most successful.

For a batsman who has batted in every position in the top seven bar number four, he has a had considerably more success down the order rather than as an opener, particualrly at numbers five and six where he averages 44 and 37.

An opening championship innings of 14 against Somerset will, however, count against him.

---

Ian Ward

Ward: Needs to open?

When David Graveney was pressed to suggest a possible new face for the position of seventh batsman, Ian Ward was the first name on his lips, though he stressed that it need not be at number seven.

With three successive centuries and four fifties on the England A tour to the West Indies, he is an obvious candidate for promotion.

But Ward would have to be included at the top fo the order, meaning that either Alec Stewart or Michael Vaughan would drop down to seven.

A total of 769 runs at 64.08 in the Busta Cup was impressive, but he was painfully slow at times, averaging 16 runs per hour, too slow for a number seven.

---

Michael Powell

Powell: Good start to the season

When it became known that the selectors were keeping a keen eye on Michael Powell, it was assumed that the reports from the England A tour were encouraging enough for Warwickshire's young batsman to be deemed ready for a Test call.

But it turned out that the Powell Fletcher and co had in mind was, in fact, Glamorgan's Michael Powell, the solid, unspectacular right-hander.

Indeed, it has been suggested that Fletcher first went to watch Powell when Glamorgan played Somerset at the end of the 1999 season.

But while Powell was noted only for backing away to Andrew Caddick, Fletcher was treated to a breathtaking innings from Marcus Treschothick which prompted his England call-up the following season.

Powell (of Glamorgan) has started the season with innings of 106 and 64 while his namesake at Warwickshire, who scored three half-centuries after being flown in as a replacement for David Sales, opened with a duck.

---

Vikram Solanki

Solanki: His time will come

It seemed only a matter of time before Solanki would become a feature of the England middle order when he made excellent progress on successive A tours and then broke into the England one-day side.

But after a solid season for Worcestershire, the stylish middle-order batsman went backwards on the last winter's A tour to the Caribbean and, so far this year, he has trodden water.

But like Aftab Habib, Usman Afzaal and Anurag Singh, all of whom might come into the reckoning, Solanki is still regarded as one of the up-and-coming young Anglo-Asians that will one day dominate England's batting.