The trigger to Key's fulfilment

Through the veil of tears that accompanied Nasser Hussain's departure from cricket he was desperate to reveal the future. What clinched his decision to retire was a flick through the county scores on Teletext, where youth hit him in the face.

Through the veil of tears that accompanied Nasser Hussain's departure from cricket he was desperate to reveal the future. What clinched his decision to retire was a flick through the county scores on Teletext, where youth hit him in the face.

He had been willing to fight everything, age, body, eyes, the fire in his belly, the doubters, the opposition, as he had always done. But not youth. "Not my youth, but players like Andrew Strauss who put his hand up the other day and scored lots of runs. But not just him. There are a few other players like Robert Key, Ian Bell, Scott Newman, Ian Ward, all in the runs and warranting consideration."

Perhaps the order was immaterial but the name of Key was first out, as if Hussain might have been looking for it and half-expecting what he saw. What a start Key has had to this season, a match-winning century in his first innings and four more hundreds in nine innings since. The ball is tripping off his bat as the name tripped off Hussain's tongue.

Key is much too realistic a man to become excited about this. Indeed, he is resolute in his unexcitability. All he seeks to do is go on scoring runs like this. He probably needs to and he knows it. Key has already played eight Tests for England, half of them against a rampant Australia, where he impressed with his imperturbable attitude without turning good starts into anything significant.

By the time he was dropped after the Second Test against Zimbabwe last summer (18 and four against the second weakest Test side in the world), he was down, out of form and not looking as if international cricket had done him the world of good.

The rest of the season was spent in a haze of getting in and getting out. There were nine scores in 22 innings between 25 and 50 and he still managed to average 37.

"It shouldn't be like that, though to be fair I didn't have much arse," he said, using cricketers' slang for good fortune. "But I realised that this was going to be a big year for me. Not just for playing for England because whatever happens, I will always be able to say that I did get there, but gradually your name can go further and further down. I needed a good start to remind people. I thought that if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it in a way that at the end of it I could look back and know I did it right."

Anybody who has seen him these past four weeks will suggest he has done it right. His first-innings century against the New Zealanders (there was one in the second too) was a model of fluency. "It meant a bit more because it was before the First Test, not in the middle of the series, and Shane Bond was letting it slip."

At The Oval last week he spent more than 12 hours of the match at the crease trying (and narrowly failing) to save Kent against Surrey. He made a career-best 199 in the second innings, his timing a thing of beauty, but he was as pleased with his first-innings 86 when the ball was moving about appreciably and his colleagues were busy nicking it to the wicketkeeper, Jonathan Batty.

Key was 25 earlier this month but seems to have been around for a cricketing generation. He has almost, having played 117 first-class matches. It has been well chronicled that in the early days he tended to take it all for granted until he was given a sharp reminder by Alec Stewart at an end-of-season bash. That instilled a work and fitness ethic.

Last winter, he altered the pace. After the summer was done he had a couple of weeks off and then played hockey for Beckenham. By Christmas he was their leading scorer. "I needed a break from cricket and the cricket way of life."

But in between he was working in the nets, changing his method. Duncan Fletcher, master of the little but important things, had suggested early in the 2003 season that Key adopt a trigger movement. Key was mildly reluctant, largely because stillness at the crease had always worked for him.

"But it's a trigger movement I've got now, just a slight one," he said. "To get it I had to hit hundreds of balls on freezing mornings at Canterbury three or four times a week on a pretty dodgy surface in an indoor net. I'm a work in progress really, but you have to work hard at something like that because it's not something you can think about when you're batting. It's got to be natural."

So it has looked this past month, as he has timed the ball with a rare majesty, his placement and authority attributes given to few. If he continues for a while longer he could be the first to 1,000 runs, which would continue an extraordinary sequence for Kent. In 2002, David Fulton had a remarkable purple patch, in 2003 Ed Smith achieved something of a similar hue. Fulton deserved to have had an international chance, Smith was given an abbreviated one.

No disrespect to either of those but Key looks, has always looked, to have that extra something. Time, perhaps, as well as timing. He refuses to come over all enthused.

"I'll just try and play it about a bit really. There are a couple of people ahead of me at the moment. I just have to keep getting runs. Maybe I'm using reverse psychology or whatever it is, playing it down. I'm desperate to get back in the England team, but I can only control how many runs I get, not who picks the team."

There is plenty of evidence to show that batsmen, good batsmen, can come back to international cricket as better players because they know what they have been missing.

There is another thing about Key. "I really enjoy playing cricket and at the moment I wouldn't trade it for anything else. It's given me a lot of things that I'd never have had doing another job. It's awesome. But the day I see it as the be-all and end-all is the day it gets the better of me and my life isn't great."

This is a 25-year-old who started as a professional first XI cricketer when he was 18. His sense of balance is not only at the crease.

Three other contenders

Ian Bell

Warwickshire, 22

Two years ago the chairman of selectors called to apologise for non-inclusion. Downhill since, but has returned to basics and regained touch. His county coach has criticised intrusion and it was ridiculous to promote him so high above his station. "England's next great batsman," wrote somebody. Still time on his hands.

Scott Newman

Surrey, 24

Scored 99 in his first first-class game and 183 in his fourth, and spent most of last year in second team. But he has already scored 1,000 runs for Surrey in a mere 20 innings (so did John Edrich) and has started this season with muscular intent. But his poor A tour (compare and contrast Pietersen) is a big minus.

Kevin Pietersen

Nottinghamshire, 23

Cocky, talented, maturing, front-foot boomer. Emigrated from South Africa because he felt hampered by quota system favouring black players. Unmoved by historical irony. Hungry attitude could cause friction but was popular on A tour. Will get chance on availability in September.