Cricket: Graham Onions feels for Tim Bresnan but is ready to step up

GRAHAM Onions was there at the start of England’s rise up the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings and he’s in the frame again as England prepare for their first Test since being presented with the ICC’s silver mace as the top-ranked Test team.

Onions, whose international career was interrupted almost two years ago and then put in grave doubt by a back injury and subsequent surgery, was added to the squad to face Pakistan in three Tests in the United Arab Emirates after Tim Bresnan had to fly home with post-operative elbow pain.

But the 29-year-old Durham seamer has great empathy with Bresnan as he hopes to add to his eight Test caps. Onions said: “Being here and spending another three weeks out here with the best coaches and the best players is something in 2009 I didn’t really think I would do. To be standing here is something really special for me.”

England face a Pakistan Cricket Board XI today in the final warm-up match before the first Test in a week’s time and the selectors will need updates on the fitness of Graeme Swann – set for a scan today on a sore thigh – and Onions’ fellow pace hopeful Chris Tremlett, who has an eye infection, before they can name their line-up for the three-day fixture.

Should Onions get the call, it will be an emotional culmination of his efforts to battle back to fitness but he added: “I’m going to have to put that to the back of my mind a little bit, because I want to perform and do well. It certainly makes you appreciate what you’ve got and how lucky you are. I wouldn’t say when I was playing I took it for granted. But you turn up and have the ball in your hand – and then all of a sudden, as happened to me in Bangladesh [in 2009], you get injured. That’s quite hard to take. But I’m here now and I want to make a difference as part of this team.

“They weren’t number one when I was playing. I want to be part of that side.”

Onions last played for England in the new year Test at Cape Town just over two years ago, in which he blocked out the final over to salvage a last-ditch draw.

But he knows all too well how injury can change things so quickly. Onions said: “I feel really bad for Tim. He has been an integral part of England’s side for the last year or two. I know exactly how he feels to be coming home from a tour.”

Onions, who was on the Tour as injury cover, added: “I did want to be part of the squad, to challenge myself and prove a point to [coach] Andy Flower and [captain[ Andy Strauss that I’m good enough to be here and stay. Unfortunately for Tim, a door opens for me really. I certainly see Tim as a big loss. He has played a massive part in England gaining No 1 one status.”

If Onions is asked to bowl, he admits there will be a moment of contemplation about the anxiety over whether he might not play again.

“I might think of it then – when I have got my whites on, my England shirt on. It is special when you play for England. It is the best feeling I have ever had when I have played. To have taken that away was very, very disappointing. It was a tough time in my career, probably the toughest.

“You’re keeping your fingers crossed. You’re doing all the training, hoping the surgeon has done a good job and kind of fixed me back together. If I get to play I have got a hell of a lot of people to thank. The ECB have been amazing.

“I have felt no pain or discomfort since I came out here. I am 100 per cent sure I am over this injury and ready to go.”