Jones remains a controversial selection for purists but his introduction to this England team has been instrumental in 12 months of almost endless success.

The Papua New Guinea-born player replaced Chris Read for the final Test of the 2004 tour of West Indies, a dead rubber remembered only for Brian Lara's epic 400 not out.

He kept his place for the summer visits of New Zealand and West Indies, justifying the selectors' trade-off of wicketkeeping quality for batting depth with a series of well-paced and pivotal innings during that memorable summer.

Jones was thus established at number seven for the tour of South Africa and again made telling contributions with the bat but concerns have begun to grow over his performance behind the stumps.

An exciting and inventive batsman, the Kent wicketkeeper's glovework is simply sub-standard at Test level and his failure to improve leaves a glaring weakness in this exciting England team.

The exclusion of Read may have been heartless but it has been vindicated by results and there is scant argument to reverse the decision this summer.

Jones has forged a prolific relationship with Andrew Flintoff and the two have proved adept both at digging England out of trouble and finding quick runs to embellish a big total.

Read's supporters point to a respectable first-class batting average but his rival has shown the priceless ability not only to score Test runs but to tailor an innings with consummate understanding of the match situation.

Nonetheless, he will be up against it this summer.

Australia love to bait a product of their own system wearing the three lions and Jones can expect to learn some new words as the five-Test contest progresses.

An Ashes series is no place for mental or technical shortcomings and Jones must quickly conquer his weaknesses or a burgeoning reputation will disintegrate as quickly as it has been built.