Fletcher recognises Thorpe's role

But Knight broke a finger at Lord's and, reluctantly, Fletcher called for Thorpe.

The fact is that Thorpe has been proved right.

After ten successive winters away - he had been on five A tours before playing in his first Test - Thorpe had become a jaded and unmotivated cricketer who had made just one half-century in 16 Test innings.

In six Tests this winter, he scored 553 runs at 61.44, including two centuries and a 64 not out as England successfully chased 167 to win in Karachi.

No wonder he speaks now of his "extra drive and purpose" after his winter off.

Fletcher, to his credit, reserved his longest and most affectionate embrace for Thorpe as he did his round of the England players after the Colombo run-chase.

In a sentence, without Thorpe England would not have won in Pakistan, and they certainly would not have won in Sri Lanka.

Thorpe averaged over 60

And battles they were, all of them - attritional in Lahore where he reached his hundred with just one boundary, cavalier in Karachi where he beat not just the bowlers but also the clock, and ground-breaking in Colombo when, for the first time in 113 years, England came back from 1-0 to win a three-Test series.

It came as little surprise that when it was called on for one player to decide the Test series in both countries it was Thorpe who responded.

Of his seven Test centuries, all but the first (made against Australia on his international debut) have come in the first innings of matches when the teams are still jockeying for supremacy.

Nor should it go unnoticed that after Thorpe's 113 and 32, both unbeaten, the next highest score by an Englishman in Colombo was 26.

Make no mistake, Sri Lanka would have beaten England in Colombo had the man who goes by the nickname "Gnome" - a reference to his lack of inches - not stood up to be counted.