County cricket has been habitually derided by England for its inability to produce players of Test quality, but it is to the county circuit that England have guiltily turned to try to stem a disastrous South African summer in this week's third Test at Trent Bridge.

This is an age of academies and central contracts, where talented players are plucked from the county pool before they drown in its supposed mediocrity.

Yet for Nottingham, one-down in the series, and lucky to be that, England have called up two county stalwarts in Glen Chapple and Ed Smith. As a bit of pre-match light relief, they might even invite the coach, Duncan Fletcher, to identify them.

Fletcher does not particularly like watching county cricket, is reluctant to let England's players take part in county cricket, and harbours a desire to tour overseas in May and September, presumably so he does not even have to look at the county scoreboards.

Even Gareth Batty, the third uncapped addition to the squad, and an effervescent academy graduate, credits his emergence to the influence to Worcestershire's director of cricket, Tom Moody, who is rapidly emerging as the popular favourite as England's next coach. Fletcher's heavy jowls must feel lead weighted.

Smith is deserving, and does have a promising surname. While Graeme Smith has manfully beaten England's attack into submission with his prehensile leg-side smites, Ed Smith has struck six championship centuries for Kent and was first to 1,000 first-class runs. It seems that his mind - and they say that it is the size of the Isle of Wight - is finally on the job.

His success, at 26, would do much to restore the morale of the late-twentysomething county professionals who feel that England no longer look in their direction.

A grounding of Tonbridge School, Cambridge University and Kent might well cause some to look askance, as will the long-whispered notion that he does not particularly relish fast bowling, but then Allan Donald has retired and South Africa possess nobody remotely his pace.

"I have been mad at myself for not having made my case more strongly in the past, and a little bit of that anger is now manifesting itself," said Smith. "This season I have been batting with those five years of frustration in me. I know I could have been better, freer, more positive."

For the selectors to determinedly ignore Graham Thorpe is one thing, finding a convincing replacement for the best batsman in the land is quite another, and Smith is the fourth candidate to fill the No5 spot, following John Crawley, Robert Key and Anthony McGrath, since Thorpe's marital problems caused him to pull out of last winter's Ashes tour. In the five years of his prime, when he should have averaged 50-plus, Thorpe managed 25 Tests. It has all been a terrible waste.

If Smith deserves his chance, the selection of Chapple confounds logic. The selectors had little leeway - how they must pray for the untroubled return from cruciate injury this winter of Simon Jones - but that hardly explains turning to a man whose 27 first-class wickets for Lancashire this season have cost 37, and whose effectiveness has gradually declined since he began his England A career in India as Darren Gough's new-ball partner. The fact that he might have the makings of a Test No8 is not consolation enough.

In any event, Chapple is unlikely to make the final 13. Unless England opt for two spinners - the likelier scenario is that Batty or Ashley Giles will contest one place - Sussex's pace bowler, James Kirtley, is poised to win his first Test cap. But Kirtley has been released from so many England squads this summer that he will be bracing himself for a dash back to Hove first thing Thursday morning.

Batty's selection owes much to Graeme Smith's Bradmanesque weight of runs, with much emphasis being placed upon the off-spinner's ability to force Smith to play through his least-favoured off-side. If England really are making specific plans for an off-spinner to dismiss an opener then they really are in trouble.

Since Batty left Surrey in search of regular cricket two years ago, Moody has helped to develop a combative cricketer, who describes his influence as: "A secret recipe, a bit like Tony The Tiger and Frosties."

Three Tests remain, and all is to play for, but no-one has yet to propose an England advertising campaign with the slogan: "They're GRRRRRREAT!" Snap, crackle and pop would be closer to the mark.

The new boys

Gareth Batty

Stuck in Surrey's 2nds until enticed to Worcestershire. An off-spinner with batting pretensions, he impressed during an Academy stint and a foray with England's one-day side.

Ed Smith

His century on debut for Kent after graduating from Cambridge encouraged huge expectations. Until this season he flattered to deceive but he has had a prodigious summer.

Glen Chapple

Former England A fast bowler must have thought his chance had gone but, just as he was reinventing himself as a seam bowler of batting repute, the England call came.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

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