Bopara handed Essex chance

Bopara, who is under huge pressure for his place in the side following a run of just 105 runs in seven innings against Australia, will play for Essex in their LV County Championship contest against Middlesex at Lord's, which starts on Tuesday.

England team director Andy Flower will release some of the XI blitzed by an innings and 80 runs at Headingley into country action this week with Bopara's county colleague Alastair Cook also available.

Both Bopara and Cook have been named in Essex's 12-man party for the four-day contest.

Under normal circumstances, players would not have been available but the fact the penultimate Test lasted little more than seven sessions has opened up the chance for match practice.

For the misfiring England batsmen - the home team have managed just one hundred in comparison to Australia's seven - it is the equivalent of naughty boy nets.

Bopara, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood managed just 16 runs between them in six visits to the crease in Leeds and will need to repair confidence with the final Ashes Test at the Brit Oval 10 days away.

Chairman of selectors Geoff Miller is coming under increasing pressure to drop Bopara from the XI, with Surrey's Mark Ramprakash widely backed for a stunning recall - seven years after his last international outing.

The 39-year-old has been in prolific form at county level this season, and Miller admits the veteran could be in the frame for a call-up.

"What we have to do as selectors is measure the quality of what they are putting in for the domestic cricket and whether they can do it at international level," Miller told Radio Five Live. "Test cricket is completely different from county, and the problem we have is deciding whether they can take their domestic form into the international arena."