Simon Jones will be unique in the home squad this summer - an England player who has elicited genuine compassion rather than pity from Australians.

The Welshman travelled on the last Ashes tour as something of a wild card, a raw but quick bowler whose early form on tour secured a place in the first Test.

His second cap was going as well as could be expected in an outclassed team when he sustained a sickening knee injury in sliding to stop a ball to the Brisbane boundary.

Over a year of surgery and rehabilitation followed, the doubts of any athlete persisting throughout: "Will I ever be the same again?"

The honest answer has to be that he is not, but this verdict is not exclusively bad news.

First selected as a pace merchant whose faulty radar and lack of control could be forgiven in the event of wickets, Jones has ceded that role to Stephen Harmison and become a first-change seamer.

Still sharp enough at just under the 90mph mark, it had been hoped that the Glamorgan bowler might master the mysteries of reverse swing to complete a perfectly-balanced pace attack with Harmison and Matthew Hoggard.

In truth, he is no more the heir to Waqar Younis than Ashley Giles is to Muralitharan but, like Giles, Jones is deserving of more confidence and support than has sometimes been offered by the England set-up.

A valuable contributor during the winter tour of South Africa, many thought him very unfortunate to be dropped to make way for James Anderson.

This decision, coupled with a clear reluctance to toss the ball to Jones even when he is the obvious bowling candidate, suggests that Vaughan lacks total faith in the son of former England international Jeff.

It is a rare blot on Vaughan's captaincy copybook and England would be well advised to heed the lesson of Giles' development - nurture what savings you have rather than daydream of a lottery win.

A seamer may well emerge this summer to push Jones out of the picture but, having shown the character to recover from his horrific injury and adapt his game accordingly, he deserves to be in the thick of things.

The question is whether Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher feel the same.