Jonathan Trott's lean start to the season has resulted in him being dropped for tonight's totesport League Division Two match at Derby.
It is the first time since 2003 that Trott has not been selected for a match due to form and reflects his travails in the first month of the season.
The figures are revealing. In seven Championship innings for Warwickshire, Trott has scored only 117 runs at 16.7, with a best of 29, while in four one-day innings he has scored a mere 24 at an average of six.
Trott top-scored with 47 for the Second XI in the first innings of the match against Lancashire at Coventry & North Warwickshire yesterday and could have been substituted from that match for first-team action. But he will instead travel to Cambridge to continue to work on his batting against student opposition tomorrow before returning, with confidence restored, for more serious challenges ahead.
Warwickshire captain Nick Knight said: "I still see ' Trotty' as a natural opener in oneday cricket. Obviously he's not hitting the ball as well as he would like at the moment but when he's back in top nick his game looks set up to open in one-day cricket."
Much of Trott's problem is mental. So anxious to succeed is he that he has magnified his failures and, where last season a supremely confident individual strode out to bat, there now stands a man consumed by doubt.
But his problems are not just mental. The feet have been slower and the bat and pad moving in less harmonious fashion than previously. The Kent team thought they had spotted technical flaws, against left-arm spin in particular, which they could exploit.
This is only his second full season in county cricket and he is far from the first young player to suffer a slump in form as opposition bowlers learn where to attack him.
He will surely bounce back. England coach Duncan Fletcher is already a fan and the excellence of Trott's batting last season suggests that not too much is amiss. He may well emerge a better, more hungry player.
Ironically, Trott's temporary demotion will mean an extra opportunity for Jim Troughton, who knows all about the vicissitudes of form, having slipped from the England one-day team to a regular in Warwickshire seconds within two years. Knight still believes in him, however.
"He looks a natural number three to me in one-day cricket," Knight said. "As things stand, I'll be opening until 'Trotty' is back in top form but then I'll drop back down to three."
Michael Powell also returns to the team today and the match represents what may well prove to be one of Ian Bell's last appearances for Warwickshire for quite some time.
Bell departs on England duty after the match and few would bet against him establishing himself in the national side for a decade. While he is sure to play in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy quarter-final against Kent in July, there may be precious few more opportunities to watch him on a domestic stage in future.
Derbyshire are without a win in this competition this season and Warwickshire will feel they are the type of opposition that must be overcome if promotion is to be secured.
The match, starting at 4.10pm, is to be played under floodlights. It may be warm enough for such ventures in Rome at present but an evening sitting outside at Derby is likely to prove more barmy than balmy.
WARWICKSHIRE (from): N Knight (capt.), N Carter, J Troughton, I Bell, M Powell, A Loudon, D Brown, T Penney, T Frost (wkt.), H Streak, Naqaash Tahir, N Warren.
