But while this May Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison failed to receive a phone call from England's selectors, two men cut from similar cloth found their mobiles buzzing with good news.

Barring a five-day downpour of biblical proportions in NW8, Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions will make their Test debuts against the West Indies at Lord's on Wednesday.

Onions is tall and possesses a lean physique, comfortable in his 6ft 2in frame, with a high bowling action and the ability to reach 90mph.

And just as Harmison and Hoggard are contrasting bowlers and characters, the same can be said of Bresnan and Onions.

Bresnan is one of those refreshingly uncomplicated cricketers from the "if it's there to 'it, 'it it" school, while Onions is more introspective, prone to throwing in the odd third-person reference.

A Pontefract upbringing probably has a large influence on Bresnan's no-nonsense approach.

Asked about his potential to swing the ball away from the right-hander at Lord's, the 24-year-old replied in a thick west Yorkshire accent: "S'pose conditions are suiting it."

Bresnan is one of those multi-dimensional cricketers admired by ex-England coach Duncan Fletcher, whose batting ability will buttress a worryingly long England tail.

Although he has three first-class centuries to his name, Bresnan dismissed comparisons between himself and Andrew Flintoff.

"I might develop into a Flintoff at one time or another, but I'm just happy with my role as a bowling all-rounder who bats lower down and gets runs when needed," he said.

Fletcher gave him his first taste of international cricket aged 21 in 2006, when the flashing blade of Sanath Jayasuriya ripped Bresnan's youthful confidence to shreds.

"It wasn't just me who got taken apart," Bresnan was keen to point out, despite being put away for six an over in a 5-0 one-day series mauling against Sri Lanka.

"He took everyone apart, Harmy, Kabir Ali, Saj [Mahmood], pretty much everyone.

"I think I was picked on potential rather than performance in 2006. Last year was the first year I thought I was ready for this, but didn't get a shout.

"I believe I am ready now - I would like to do my talking on the pitch."

Onions is a more complex character whose elevation has coincided with a period of personal introspection.

A heel injury restricted him to just five appearances for Durham last year, and he missed out on the championship-winning victory over Kent.

"I didn't travel (to Canterbury), which hurt me a lot," he said. "Even talking about it now...the lads say 'do you remember that game?' It gave me the kick to do the hard work."

A self-confessed hothead in his younger days, the Gateshead-born fast bowler acknowledged his unrefined aggression was affecting his bowling performances.

"Maybe I wasn't mentally strong enough," said Onions, the County Championship's leading wicket-taker this season with 15 at a very healthy average of 16.40.

"But there's a difference between being a hothead and being determined to get my goals and targets.

"I used to channel my aggression in the wrong direction. Now it seems to be going in the right direction.

"That aggression can be put in at the gym or bowling in the nets, not just at the batsman."

A verbal joust with Justin Langer in the championship match between Durham and Somerset last week perfectly encapsulated the new and improved Onions.

"I did have a couple of words with him, he had a couple of words back," said Onions.

"But I didn't lose my focus, whereas maybe a few years ago I would have lost control of where the ball was going."

That adjustment helped him to eight wickets at Taunton, including 6-31 on the day of his call-up as Somerset were dismissed for 69 on the best batting track in the country.

"As long as I keep the aggressive personality that I am, be Graham Onions, then I don't think there's any reason to change," he added.

Hoggard made his England debut against the West Indies at Lord's nine summers ago, collecting 0-49 despite his fellow seamers running amok and dismissing the tourists for 54.

And Harmison, like Hoggard, was dropped following his first Test appearance.

Both Bresnan and Onions have every reason to hope for better.

Much has been made about the potential impact Hughes could have on this summer's Ashes.

Instead, standing at 5ft 7in, he looks exactly how you would imagine an average 20-year-old Australian from upstate New South Wales would do.

Diamond earring twinkling from his right ear. Healthy covering of three-day stubble. An Aussie twang which would make Ricky Ponting sound upper class.

"I'm here to play good, hard cricket and string wins together," the left-handed opener said at his unveiling at Lord's. "I want to be positive in everything."

Hughes, who begins his English education with a six-week stint at Middlesex, bears an uncanny physical resemblance to another New South Wales protégé, Michael Clarke.

There are similarities in their cricket too - the duo share the same coach/mentor, Neil D'Costa, both scored Test hundreds within two matches of their Test debuts and have been touted as new Bradmans.

"It has definitely been full-on the last couple of months, I've thoroughly enjoyed the last five or six weeks," said Hughes, who was brought up in Macksville, a small New South Wales town 280 miles south of Brisbane.

Hughes was 16 when Ricky Ponting's side lost the Ashes for the first time in 18 years, spending plenty of late nights and early mornings watching the 2005 series with banana farmer father Greg.

A year later, He moved to the bright lights of Sydney to work at a cricket school with D'Costa, who mapped out a simple blueprint: "Unless you're here to replace (Matthew)
Hayden, I don't want you to come to my academy."

"We knew there would be a spot there (Australia Test team) in a few years time," said Hughes.

"You want to be organised and plan out things, it just happened to go out that way.

"It wasn't that hard. I had to get runs in the NSW side and go from there."

And the runs flowed like a vintage Australian red. He outperformed NSW team-mate Phil Jaques and Victoria's Chris Rogers in state cricket on his way to becoming the youngest player ever to score a century in a Pura Cup final, the pinnacle of the domestic competition in Australia, in 2007.

His first appearance in the Baggy Green in February this year was something to forget - caught behind for a fourth-ball duck attempting an ugly upper cut to third man.

His second innings at Johannesburg's Wanderers - 75 from 121 balls - was packed with flashing drives, scything cuts and brutal pulls against the pace attack which had ripped England to shreds six months previously.

His second Test at Durban's Kingsmead is the stuff of legends - becoming the youngest batsman to score two Test hundreds in the same match (beating George Headley's 80-year-old record).

He brought up his maiden ton with two successive sixes off left-arm spinner Paul Harris on his way to 115 before an even more impressive 160.

"I have never done that before," said Hughes. You and pretty much everyone else, Phillip.

"If I see a ball and it's there to be hit, hopefully I will hit it into a gap, it's something I have always done.

"I'm on the go a fair bit. Everyone's different - and I like to play my own game."

Hughes' much-anticipated arrival in England has not been greeted with universal delight.

Former England captain Alec Stewart said it was "wrong" to give Hughes the opportunity to acclimatise to English conditions ahead of a defining summer, while national selector Geoff Miller doubted whether the Australians would reciprocate a similar policy for England players down under.

The reality, however, is slightly different. First, Hughes signed for Middlesex in February, a month before he created cricket history against South Africa in Durban.

And two, six weeks is hardly sufficient time to send England's bowlers to the very depths of despair, according to his Middlesex opening partner, who will also happen to be the man standing at first slip when Hughes makes his Ashes bow at Cardiff on 8 July.

"I will be opening the batting with him next week, I will see him up close and personal," said England captain Andrew Strauss with a poker face that could win millions in Las Vegas.

Hughes revealed he rejected overtures from the Indian Premier League to play in the County Championship, where Middlesex will start in Division Two, repeatedly emphasising his desire to learn more about English conditions.

"You hear about the different balls, the weather, the wickets. It will be a good confidence thing going into it," he said.

"I know the Ashes is two months away, but the biggest thing is my six-week stint with Middlesex."

Hughes admitted he "couldn't tell" us much about Glamorgan's bowling attack, his first opponents in a Middlesex shirt on Wednesday at Lord's.

Give it six weeks, England will know everything about you, Phillip.