Today we saw Graham Thorpe's return to the England side and while his talent is an undoubted benefit his value as another left-hander is also important.

Apart from Makhaya Ntini the South African bowlers don't seem to find it easy to bowl at left-handers, and they're not alone in that. I can remember when I played that I sometimes struggled because you have to adjust your line.

You can concentrate on a channel to right-handers – off stump – but left-handers provide a totally different problem. Unless you swing it back into them lbw is totally out of the equation, and if you can't get it to swing back then it's going naturally across towards the off-side giving them width to work with. Whereas with a right-hander if you bowl your natural angle it's always coming in at the stumps so you can't take too many liberties.

From those points of view as a bowler you have less assets up your sleeve against left-handers and where Thorpe is really good is that he's a different sort of player to Butcher – he's a bit more wristy, whereas Thorpe is more upright and traditional.

Thorpe is much neater and more busy and messes up bowlers' strategies because he plays back when some would play forward and is constantly looking to take quick singles – unlike Butcher and Trescothick.

Thorpe comes in and works the ball around so bowlers can't settle into a rhythm. The fielders have to move all of the time as well.

I like the idea of Thorpe and Hussain as a four-five combination because Hussain is gritty, hard to get out and aggressive while Thorpe works it, looks solid and tries to get under the opposition's skin. They're also big mates and work very well as a pair and I would have thought that Thorpe has now convinced the selectors to pick him (and Hussain) for the winter.

Marcus Trescothick also battled very well today and it would be a major hundred for him if can complete it on Saturday. He's never made a hundred against a non-Asian country – his three hundreds have been against spin-dominated attacks from the sub-continent.

If he can get one now against a seam-dominated team that would be a good progression for him, especially after a difficult few months.

He left the ball well today but there was no dramatic change in his technique. The pitch is obviously playing better and Ntini didn't get the dramatic and alarming movement of previous games. He also had a bit of luck but generally I think he's probably coming to terms with their method of attack a bit more and learning to be a bit more patient.

5 Sep, 2003