England have indicated their concerns about Ashley Giles' troublesome hip injury by calling up Gareth Batty as cover for the first npower Test against Bangladesh later this week.
Giles' injury, which first flared up a fortnight ago during Warwickshire's championship match against Sussex at Hove, has been consistently dismissed as nothing more than a minor concern by England's selectors.
But it was serious enough for him to have a cortisone injection last week, which was supposed to accelerate the healing process.
And England have now called up Worcestershire off-spinner Batty just days before the start of the first Test at Lord's.
Officially England are still dismissing any grounds for concern with chairman of selectors David Graveney stressing: "Ashley's fitness will be re-assessed by the England medical team [today] when the Test squad reports for practice and Gareth has been added to the squad as a precautionary measure."
That could prove to be the case, with Giles desperate to maintain his place in England's victorious line-up having featured in the last 12 successive Tests.
That run prevented Batty playing a single Test during the winter series in South Africa.
Giles' impressive form also restricted Batty's appearances in the one-day line-up during the long winter, when he made a solitary appearance against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo and was reduced to a couple of warm-up matches and plenty of net practice.
Batty, though, put his time to good use during the winter and worked hard in the nets on both his batting and bowling, which has resulted in him claiming four for 21 and scoring 54 during Worcestershire's recent championship match with Essex at Chelmsford.
"I didn't regard the winter as a waste of time at all because you can only learn from being around the good players in the England squad," he said.
"I've learnt a lot from talking to people like Ashley and I also worked very hard on my batting with Duncan Fletcher during the winter.
"My aim is to develop into the sort of player who can take 50 wickets and score around 1,000 runs every season so that England can look at me more of as an all-rounder."
The last of Batty's five Test appearances was over a year ago against West Indies in Antigua, when Giles was ruled out with a stomach virus.
