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While Andrew Flintoff's return to England's bowling attack remains the focus of the practice match against Warwickshire, Monty Panesar's performance in this week's game is just as important to the team's Ashes chances.
Should England choose two slow bowlers for next week's First Test against Australia in Cardiff, Panesar is the favourite to get the nod over young leg-spinner Adil Rashid as Graeme Swann's partner.
Panesar would hope to get a long spell at Edgbaston today to prove his worth - and it would solve a huge headache for captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower if the left-arm spinner could recapture the form he showed in the early stages of his Test career.
Three years after Panesar arrived in international cricket by bowling Pakistan batsman Younus Khan with the perfect delivery at Old Trafford, his Test career is on a knife edge.
He was usurped by Swann as England's No1 spinner after being out-bowled by his former Northamptonshire team-mate in India last winter and since then he has played just one of England's last six Tests.
With Yorkshire starlet Rashid also in contention for a spinner's berth after his encouraging performances in the World Twenty20, Panesar faces the prospect of being barged out of the international game at just 27, before he has fully developed as a cricketer. Yet there is reason for optimism. During an hour-long net session with spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed yesterday, Panesar showed signs of regaining his rhythm, troubling team-mate Kevin Pietersen - a fine player of spin bowling - on several occasions.
It is also worth noting that, in a relatively inexperienced 16-man squad, Panesar is one of only eight players with Ashes experience.
In his three Tests during Australia's 5-0 whitewash in the last series two-and-a-half years ago, Panesar performed well, taking 10 wickets at a cost of 38 runs each. Panesar's status has declined since then but on a Cardiff surface that is likely to turn, he knows a convincing display at Edgbaston would make him hard to leave out.
As Panesar frets over his Test prospects, the future looks rosy for Alastair Cook, who hit 124 as England made 290 for eight declared on the opening day of the three-day fixture.
Cook was omitted from the one-day and World Twenty20 squads, so he had not played for England since scoring 160 in the Test victory over West Indies at Chester-le-Street in May.
"It seems a long time since I played for England," said Cook, who has been in fine form for Essex in the Twenty20 Cup. "When you score 160, you just want to carry on batting. It is nice to get back into the rhythm of four- and five-day cricket, where, unlike Twenty20, you don't have to feel guilty about leaving a ball."
Cook insists there are no problems in the dressing room with Flintoff, who has apologised to his team-mates after being punished for missing a bus during a bonding camp in Belgium.
It was speculated Flintoff had been involved in a late-night drinking session before the event but Cook said: "Fred made a mistake and has said sorry. It is nice that he is honest and you could see the regret in his face."
