Cricket: Tudor setback rocks England; Paceman added to casualty list.

Byline: RICHARD GIBSON

ALEX TUDOR yesterday became the third England player in 48 hours to be ruled out of contention to face India in the First Test at Lord's.

A reassessment of his shin problem revealed he will be out for at least two weeks with tendonitis and the Surrey pace bowler joins England vicecaptain Marcus Trescothick and his Somerset colleague Andrew Caddick on the sidelines.

That pair were removed from the equation on Wednesday when Trescothick sustained a fractured thumb in the field against Worcestershire, just hours after it was confirmed Caddick's recovery from an intercostal injury had hit a setback.

As a result of that double blow and Tudor's uncertain position, the scheduled squad announcement was postponed from Thursday to this morning.

Tudor, man-of-the-match in England's last Test against Sri Lanka a month ago, is now doubtful for the Second Test, which starts in Nottingham in just under three weeks.

But he is taking a course of anti-inflammatory tablets and wearing a walking boot to relieve the discomfort in the tendon on the inside of his shin.

Rest is essential in a bid to return quickly this time and Surrey physio Neil Walker will liaise with England's Dean Conway as his progress is monitored.

That link between Surrey and England has not been so smooth this week with Graham Thorpe left to kick his heels in thecurrent county championship match against Kent at Canterbury.

But chairman of selectors David Graveney has hit back at suggestions that a strained relationship with central office led Surrey to omit England's premier batsman, insisting it is the county championship leaders' prerogative to pick their own XI.

Left-hander Thorpe, 32, clearly wanted to play, having not batted in a competitive fixture since July 2, but that would have meant dumping impressive young all-rounder Rikki Clarke.

Thorpe will go into next week's First Test relying on numerous net sessions for practice.

But Graveney said: ``Our relationship with Surrey is, and has always been good.

``Due to Surrey being currently the major provider of players for the England cricket team there is more dialogue with them than with any other county.

``Obviously we would have liked Graham to have batted over the weekend.

``But we have no jurisdiction over Surrey's selection policy and fully understand their reasoning for leaving Thorpe out.''

CAPTION(S):

GOTCHA! Lancashire's Peter Martin celebrates clean-bowling Yorkshire's Matthew Wood yesterday.