England call Johnson and Ball

Opportunity knocks for Richard Johnson and Martyn Ball, the two bowlers yesterday picked as replacements for Andy Caddick and Robert Croft, who refused to play in India. This tour, with its promise of special security guards and moats around some grounds, is in danger of turning into a game show long before England arrive on 14 November. If it does, the new caps will probably find Hughie Green a more fitting description of the way they feel rather than the Indian pitches.

As neither are exactly household names, or even particularly young for that matter (Ball is 31 and Johnson 26), the wellspring of talent in English cricket appears to be dry. Yet, in many ways, that is the beauty (as well as the frustration) of the county game, with gems like Marcus Trescothick laying undiscovered for years, until an unforeseen chain of events conspires to give them their chance.

For now, euphoria is obscuring the sensory overload the pair can expect when they land at Bombay in 11 days' time. "I was ecstatic when David Graveney phoned me," said Ball yesterday. "As a 31-year-old, I did wonder if perhaps my chance of an England cap had gone. But last season with Gloucestershire went extremely well for me and I feel I have matured both as a spinner and with the bat." Ball, who is also a fine slip fielder, pipped his fellow off-spinner at Gloucestershire, Martin Snape, who played on England's recent one-day trip to Zimbabwe.

With the England and Wales Cricket Board still waiting for the spinner Ashley Giles to pass next Wednesday's fitness test after Achilles surgery, the selectors were understandably cautious when Snape suffered a recurrence of an ankle injury.

The latest on Giles, a vital part of England's attack in Pakistan and Sri Lanka last winter, is that he is expected to pass the test and work on his fitness and form once he gets to India. But even if Giles, Craig White and James Ormond are all fit, this is still one of the most inexperienced England bowling attacks ever. Take away White's 21 caps as an all-rounder and the other six front-line bowlers share just 11 caps between them.

As a spinner, Ball should find the bare pitches more to his liking than Johnson, a muscular pace bowler who can swing the ball if conditions allow. But, on home turf, India's batsmen become run machines, a challenge every player needs to rise to.

Before any heroics are performed, Johnson, whose move to Somerset at the end of the 2000 season appears to have been beneficial, said he was just pleased to be given the chance.

"It didn't really enter my mind not to tour," said the fast bowler. "After being involved around the team during the summer, this might be the only opportunity I get with England and I want to try and take it." Seven years ago, Johnson was picked to tour South Africa, but pulled out because of a back injury. Last season his promise at last looked like being fulfilled as he took 62 first-class wickets for Somerset. His ability to move the ball has seen him picked ahead of Silverwood, whose out-and-out pace can lack guile.

Touring India is always memorable and the return today of John Carr, the ECB's operations manager, following talks in India regarding safety, should ensure that the current crop do not miss the experience.

Carr, who would not comment directly on whether England planned to travel with their own security men in place, reiterated that the tour could now go ahead. "From the ECB's perspective, the forthcoming tour of India has always been on," he said in Delhi yesterday.