Vaughan looking good for tour after gym work-outs

Colin Crompton
Thursday 12 January 2006 01:00 GMT
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The England captain Michael Vaughan is confident of being fit enough to join the rest of the touring party set to head out to India next month.

Vaughan returned early from the pre-Christmas trip to Pakistan to have surgery on the injured right knee which forced him out of the opening Test defeat in Multan. He has yet to reach full fitness but has made sufficient recovery from the surgery to talk optimistically of his involvement in the tour to India, which comprises three Tests and seven one-day internationals.

"The injury is fine," Vaughan said. "I've taken a really positive step in the last two weeks and I've been able to get on the machines and work very hard for two or three hours a day. I don't think it will be a problem for me getting on the plane with the rest of the lads in February. It's moving nicely, but ... I've not done any running or twisting and turning yet - and that's going to be the real test for me."

England's squad for the second leg of their subcontinental winter will be named tomorrow.

Vaughan's old adversary, Australia's star leg-spinner Shane Warne, is contemplating a return to one-day international cricket in order to play in the 2007 World Cup.

Warne retired from the limited overs game in 2003 but is now thought to be keen on playing in the West Indies next year. The changes to one-day cricket, in particular the introduction of the super-sub rule, have alerted the 36-year-old, although he insists that the Test match arena remains his priority.

"I think now that it's been regulated, there's a super-sub, there's a lot more things to think about and consider," Warne said.

"You never say never, and it's not for another eight or nine months that I have to make a decision on whether I'm going to make myself available. If they don't pick me they don't pick me. It would be nice to play in the World Cup, but it depends on what I want to do with my Test future. I think my Test cricket's proven to be as good as it's ever been, so if that means I can't play one-day cricket any more and it will extend my Test career then maybe that's the way it has to stay."

In 194 one-day international appearances Warne took 293 wickets, while in his 135 Test matches the spinner has claimed a world-record 659 victims.

* The Australian spin bowlers Cameron White and Dan Cullen have been snapped up as Somerset's overseas players for 2006. The county have also signed the experienced South African left-arm seamer Charl Willoughby, who played for Leicestershire last season, on a three-year contract, initially as a Kolpak player. The Somerset director of cricket Brian Rose said: "I think most supporters would agree that what we lack is bowling strength. Willoughby is particularly effective in one-day cricket. White is a talented leg-spinner who can bat at five or six, while Dan Cullen is developing into an excellent off-spinner."

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