Patient Chris Rogers collects reward for a long innings Former national skippers Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor flank vice-captain Brad Haddin and captain Michael Clarke at the announcement of the Ashes squad in Sydney yesterday. IN 2005 Chris Rogers scored 219 for Leicestershire against one of the great Australian sides and appeared on the verge of a great career once a spot opened up for him on the national team. In 2008 he made that long-delayed Test debut and, while he did not make the most of it, it seemed inevitable he would play his second soon enough. However, Rogers had to wait until yesterday before he was named again and with his inclusion in an Ashes squad whose batting is obviously fragile -- it appears that at 35 he will play that next Test. His presence is more an admission of current failures than those of the past. Yes, he should have been given another chance long ago. And, yes a man with 19,000 first-class runs, including 58 centuries and 88 half-centuries at an average of 50 deserves more than one Test. He played his one Test in Perth during the 2007-08 summer against India. His cap was too small and it gave him a migraine. When the team moved on he was left behind. It seemed the selectors had airbrushed him from history. Matthew Hayden returned to take his place at the top of the order with Phil Jaques in the next game and in the following summers Simon Katich, Phil Hughes, Shane Watson, David Warner and Ed Cowan were considered more appropriate for the opening position. His time has come again but not because he is going any better than he has over the past years, rather because the first-class scene in this country is bereft of first-class young batsmen. He was 30 when he got his first chance and is 35 now. His best years are probably past, but even if he is in decline he is far and away better than anyone younger in Sheffield Shield cricket. There is some irony in the fact that Rogers has been called up because of his experience in England when he has only played one Test, but such is the state of Australian cricket. "He (chairman of selectors John Inverarity) called to tell me the good news and said that he viewed me as an all-round package because I have a lot of experience in England and can offer some good advice and knowledge of players," Rogers said yesterday. I guess they see me as somebody who can come in and offer something from the experience I have over here. Of the seven batsmen in the Ashes squad, five are openers. Rogers says that while it is his natural position and the one he loves, he has batted at first drop for Middlesex and is willing to bat anywhere for his country. At the start of last summer he told The Australian he was no longer waiting for the phone to ring, figuring cricket had passed him by. "When there were probably 50-50 calls and I missed out and it looked like the selectors were going in a different direction I probably got a little bit down about things and probably mentioned to people close to me that I didn't think I would ever get a go," Rogers said. I have had a lot of support and a lot of people said to never give up hope and here I am and it's pleasing to get that one more chance to show people that I really can play and prove to myself that I can make it at that level. Rogers is in England as captain of Middlesex and will continue to play with the side up until the Ashes tour. I would like to think that performing consistently over a number of years has helped my cause and that is why they picked me. Rogers said his first Test was a bit of a blur and he was looking forward to joining the squad and soaking up the atmosphere this time around. The baggy green that didn't fit split during the Perth match and was replaced. Sensing there might be a chance for a recall, he gave it to his parents before leaving for Middlesex in the hope that he might need to call for it.