Boyd Rankin backed to claim England place

[dutchman]

Warwickshire bowling coach Graeme Welch believes fast bowler Boyd Rankin is “definitely” a contender to force his way into the England squad at some stage.



Rankin has given the Bears’ bowling attack a consistently hostile spearhead this season. He is the county’s leading wicket-taker with 39 in the championship so far and has been a big factor in their surprise climb to third place in Division One.

Derry-born Rankin, whose 27th birthday is today, is a regular in Ireland’s one-day squad and has played 31 ODIs but aspires to play the Test cricket which his native country cannot deliver.

Rankin has already figured in one of the ECB’s winter Performance Programme training camps and he has indicated that he would be receptive to selection by England, thereby following the path trodden by Eoin Morgan and Ed Joyce.

A late developer, Rankin is this season showing the sustained levels of pace, form and fitness that Warwickshire had in mind when they lured him from Derbyshire in 2008.

He attracted high praise from Marcus Trescothick when Somerset visited Edgbaston in the Championship recently and Welch, who has had a big input into the Irishman’s recent development, gives the most emphatic answer when asked whether Rankin is a potential England player.