Prince backs Pattinson return

Ashwell Prince is backing Darren Pattinson to make an impression for England

Ashwell Prince has backed his new Nottinghamshire team-mate Darren Pattinson to stake a claim for an England recall with a good performance against South Africa on Saturday.

Pattinson will line up for the England Lions in their second one-day match with the tourists at Derby and 31-year-old Prince, who is about to start a spell as overseas player with Nottinghamshire, expects Pattinson to prove his doubters wrong.

“I think he’s an international class bowler,” said the gritty left-hander, who speaks from experience because he became Pattinson’s second Test victim - caught behind for 149.

“At Headingley he bowled quite well and didn’t let himself down at all. Perhaps there were a few nerves on day one - as you might expect from a man making his Test debut - but on day two he was probably England’s best bowler.

“He’s been doing well since he was left out and his performances would certainly merit the selectors taking another look at him.”

Prince admits Pattinson’s selection caught the South Africans by surprise but added that the Grimsby-born 29-year-old, who was raised in Australia, had not deserved to be singled out as a scapegoat for the Test defeat.

He said: “We didn’t really know anything about Pattinson but we made a few phone calls to some of our contacts on the county circuit and got some information from them pretty quickly.

“When it came to our first innings we all studied him closely to find out what his bowling was like.

“He didn’t ask to be selected and every player wants to represent their country - he was hardly going to turn them down.”

The one-day game is South Africa’s last before they play a Twenty20 international and five one-day internationals with England.

The tourists will go into the series as favourites and are only two points behind Australia in the world rankings.

Prince added: “It’s the goal of the team to be number one in the world in both forms of the game.

“But they won’t be getting ahead of themselves and with Kevin Pietersen as the new England captain I think it’s going to be a close series.”