Harmison must take his chance

Durham fast bowler Harmison, 29, has spent the past four months in the international wilderness but has been recalled to a 13-man party for the third npower Test against South Africa at Edgbaston.

"The ball is in his court," said national selector Geoff Miller. "If he bowls well and does the job we ask him to do then it could be."

Those that have witnessed him at close quarters this summer claim the menace last seen in him a couple of summers ago when he routed Pakistan at Old Trafford is back.

Two indifferent years followed that zenith, which bore match figures of 11 for 76, but he now has the opportunity to make a new start in an England shirt.

Miller and England captain Michael Vaughan are among those to have been impressed by the alignment of speed and direction in Harmison's bowling this season.

Having rediscovered the zip he lost on the tour of New Zealand, he has been the most prolific operator in the top division of the County Championship with 40 victims, a statistic which convinced the four-man selection panel it was time for a recall.

"There's no risk at all," said Miller. "We wouldn't have put him in if we thought there was a risk.

"We talk to all the players regularly and I have watched him bowl this year and talked to him myself.

"People are now saying he is in a better place than he was, and he now looks like the bowler he was a couple of years ago when he was striking fear into opposition batsmen."