Graham Thorpe resumed training yesterday and hopes to be fit enough to play in the Second Test at Lord's.

But the Surrey batsman will be desperately short of match practice, and is unlikely to play in his county side's Benson and Hedges Cup final clash with Gloucestershire tomorrow.

So it will be up to the selectors to decide whether it's worth gambling on Thorpe who had been in such prime form before suffering his calf injury five weeks ago.

Thorpe said: "I had 30 minutes on the bowling machine and it felt fine. Now I have to build it up by batting on it and running between the wickets. I'm hopeful it will be okay for next week but I have to test it out properly.

"Once I've done that the decision whether to take a risk on me comes down to someone else. They'll have to decide if they think it's worth taking a gamble on playing me without any match practice," he told Channel 4's cricket website.

"I have had a lack of match practice but there is nothing we can do about that. I wanted to play in the Lord's final but I can't go into a game like that having only had one or two nets. That wouldn't be fair on Surrey or England.

"I have to get in as much practice between now and next Thursday. I could play in a second team game of a club match but they will not recreate the situation I'll be going into next week. With match practice it's as much about getting your mind right as the body."

A fit Thorpe is vital to bolstering England's middle order which collapsed so disastrously at Edgbaston in the First Test.

He said: "I want to play next week. The Lord's Test against Australia is the big one but I've got to put the calf under as much stress as possible because if I suffer another setback then further investigations on the calf will have to take place."

It is thought that Thorpe will be named in the England squad to be announced on Sunday to give him as much time to recover as possible. England are already without skipper Nasser Hussain and batsman Michael Vaughan though both hope to be fit for the Third Test.

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