“The mere fact of being out of the team last year has made him think him how badly he wants to be England’s wicketkeeper. Despite the results that were had out in India in the one-dayers, he actually performed really well behind the stumps and he doesn’t want to miss out on any opportunity to prove he’s England’s number one,” he added.

Monstrous to send team: Boycott

Former England captain Geoff Boycott has hit out at the ECB saying it was “monstrous” even to be thinking of sending players back to the terror-stricken sub-continent. “Given what has just happened in India, it is monstrous for the England and Wales Cricket Board even to be thinking about sending the team back out again,” he said.

“The ECB are showing a lack of moral judgment by pressing ahead with all these meetings and security inspections. The whole thing is just too raw,” he was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph. “No one should underestimate the scale of this disaster. The aftershocks are not going to die down quickly.