LONDON, May 15: Matthew Prior hopes his Test debut against the West Indies later this week will see him start to make the vexed position of England wicket-keeper his own.

Various glovemen have come and gone since Alec Stewart retired four years ago, with England struggling to find someone who could contribute both as a batsman and as a keeper.

One-day cricket has complicated the issue with the 36-year-old Paul Nixon, England’s keeper during the recent ill-fated World Cup campaign in the Caribbean after Geraint Jones and Chris Read had been behind the stumps during the 5-0 Ashes Test thrashing in Australia.But the selectors broke with the past by including Sussex's Prior for the opening match of a four-Test series starting at Lord's on Thursday. The match also marks former Sussex coach and keeper Peter Moores's first in charge of the national side since replacing Duncan Fletcher as England coach.

Prior, 25, who has known Moores since he was coached by him playing for Sussex Under-13s, told reporters at Lord’s here on Tuesday: “I'd like to think that it’s the performance that’s got me there. The fact is I'm averaging nearly 40 in first-class cricket and had a great winter in Bangladesh (for England A), being the top run-scorer.”

Prior played 12 One-day Internationals for England between 2004 and 2006, but has kept in only one of those games, during a largely unsuccessful experiment where he was played as an opener in a bid to get quick runs. Questions have been raised about the quality of his wicket-keeping, most recently by Shane Warne who as captain of Hampshire was involved in a heated on-field row with Prior two years ago.

But Prior insisted the experience of keeping to Pakistan leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed at Sussex would serve him well in Test cricket.—AFP