Jones reveals quickfire talent with the bat

He was picked as a quick bowler, but first impressions of Simon Jones on his England debut were that he bats pretty fast as well. And, after a thrilling visit to the crease yesterday – his first experience of Headquarters – that was the clearly the verdict of a packed house at Lord's, because the left-handed batsman entered the Pavilion to a standing ovation.

Among that crowd was his proud father, Jeff, himself a former England fast bowler back in the 1960s (who coincidentally made his Test debut against India in 1963-64). After the dust had settled Jones Snr, a left-arm fast bowler and orthodox right-handed bat – the opposite of his son – left the Edrich Stand and said: "That was excellent. I am thrilled to bits." For 45 thrilling minutes Jones held centre stage, as he blazed away at the Indian attack. His exhilarating 44 was scored at better than a run a ball and contained seven boundaries and one impressively straight six that cleared the rope in front of the delighted Members' Pavilion.

"Do you know," Jeff said, "in that one innings he has scored more runs for England than I managed in 15 Tests." That was a grand total of 38 runs, at an average of 9.67.

"But he has always been able to bat a bit," added Jeff, who claimed 44 Test wickets with a career-best 6 for 118 in Australia. "Although he does not get that from me, all I did, when he was little, was show him how to hold a bat. But at the Academy last winter Rod Marsh said he should be batting at No 8 for Glamorgan, because he really can hit the ball." That was evident last season at Scarborough, where Yorkshire clinched the County Championship by beating Glamorgan, but before they got their hands on the trophy they had to get rid of Jones.

It took 14 balls, off which Jones hammered 46, all of them off Darren Lehmann, with half a dozen sixes and two fours.

All that remained was for Jones to follow the script and bowl a bit. He did, but without much success. "My legs felt like jelly when I came on to bowl," confessed Jones afterwards, "but tomorrow I will be more relaxed and people can expect more speed." His top speed yesterday was 91.8 mph: "I have been compared with Brett Lee [the Australian fast bowler] and others and I know I can bowl as fast as them."

As for his innings he said: "The more I batted the easier it became." For England's sake it is to be hoped that that becomes true of his bowling, but not everything goes according to the script, as the Jones Boy already knows.