I rate Dalrymple, but I’m not sure that he is what is needed in the test side at the moment.

As a one day player his bowling doesn’t need to take a significant amount of wickets and I think he has an important containment role, and he will perfom this better than, say, Ian Blackwell.

If he is to be in the the test side as a bowler who can get lower order runs (at either seven or eight), and this appears to be his anointed role, then he needs to be able to bowl a side out in the fourth innings rather than be someone who goes at 2 or 3 an over, takes a few wickets and chips in runs. Unless you have more mystery than Dalrymple has offered in the one dayers an off-spinner is not going to bowl out a side, even on a fifth day pitch. Playing Blackwell at Nagpur proved the pointlessness of a bits and pieces bowler, as he bowled 19 overs in the whole game, compared to Monty Panasar’s 58, and seven first innings overs to Monty’s 42. I forsee similar usage for Dalrymple (although having Strauss as captain may mean he gets used more). Therefore it is better to have Monty in the side, with at least a little threat of a match winning performance, rather than Dalrymple without such a threat. If Dalrymple is in for his batting, and for containment, we may as well use Pieterson, who is a half decent off-spinner but out of practice in this role, an play Monty, who might win you a match. Or play four seamers, depending on the pitch.

Of course they play two spinners, with Dalrymple and Panasar