However hard England’s chief selector Geoff Miller recently tried to put a positive spin on Ravi Bopara’s international snub – from the Test and One-Day squad in South Africa and the England Lions trip to the UAE – it is clear the Essex star’s career is at a crossroads.

Gazette cricket writer Ian Oxborrow looks at what the future may hold for a player once regarded as one of the world’s brightest young batting talents.

THE most prolific of English county batsmen do not always turn out to be the most successful Test Match players.

Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash are the best examples from the modern era of players who topped batting averages year after year and plundered more than a century of first-class centuries.

In the Test arena, it was a completely different story, with Hick’s 65 Tests producing an average of 31.32 and Ramprakash’s 52 Tests and even less inspiring 27.32.

Essex’s Ravi Bopara may never be as prolific as the aforementioned pair, but he has shown in recent seasons that he possesses a huge appetite for runs, and has the talent to back it up.

However, after transferring impressive county statistics - which included an incredible double hundred for Essex in a one-day match against Leicestershire in 2008, one of only eight in history at the time – to the Test arena, it has all gone wrong for the wristy right-hander.

But will he go the way of unfulfilled run-machines like Hick and Ramprakash?

For the full story see today's Gazette.