Will Darren Gough be able to pull out all the stops at Headingley next week and restore England's pride in the fourth Test against Australia which starts on Thursday?

The Yorkshireman cannot do anything now about the Ashes, which have already been handed over with barely a murmur, but it will be a great shot in the arm for Yorkshire and England cricket if he can blast away the all-conquering Aussies on his home ground.

To do so, however, Gough will have to show much better form than he has managed so far this season for either county or country but "The Dazzler" always has the capacity to shine on the big occasion.

Gough is still England's best bowler in the series next to Andy Caddick with nine wickets from the first three Test matches but that is well below what he would have hoped for and, at an average of 41.44 runs per wicket, it is obvious why he has not caused Australia too many problems.

England, of course, still insist that shielding Gough and others from the rigours of too much county cricket is the way to win Test matches but this is now looking more than ever like a failed policy.

Everyone will agree that Gough should not be over-stretched but the season is now almost four months' old and Gough has bowled a total of 172 overs - 88 for Yorkshire and 84 for England - for a total of 18 wickets at exactly 36 runs apiece.

It is difficult to see how he can maintain a rhythm with so little work and it would surely have been to Yorkshire and England's advantage had he been allowed to play in the Roses match at Old Trafford this week.

The fact that Craig White was given the nod to take part in the Roses battle certainly did the all-rounder a power of good and without his brilliant record-breaking innings he faced the axe at Headingley after some woefully weak performances this summer.

However, the selectors may ignore him when they sit down today for their final deliberations as he generally struggled with the ball at Old Trafford.

Although White the bowler knows as well as anyone how to exploit conditions at Headingley his all-round form so far in the Tests against Australia has been abysmal - and until his Roses spree not all that much better for Yorkshire.

For England he has captured one wicket at a cost of 189 runs and in six innings he had made 37 runs - 29 of them coming in one knock when the game was already as good as lost.

How differently things have turned out to what was being speculated much earlier in the season when it appeared as if several other Yorkshire players besides Gough and White would have been in the frame for next week's Test match.

Michael Vaughan would almost certainly have been an automatic choice but for the knee operation which has wrecked the Ashes series for him and Matthew Hoggard, Chris Silverwood and Ryan Sidebottom were all possibles.

Hoggard's last chance went for a burton when he broke down with his foot injury again while making his return with Yorkshire Phoenix last Sunday and Silverwood has now been out for too long to be a leading candidate.

Sidebottom was forgotten for a while after his debut against Pakistan but now he, too, has broken down with a groin strain.

Desperate for new blood, England might have been prepared to take a gamble at Headingley with Yorkshire's new bowling sensation, Steven Kirby, who has captured 34 wickets in half-a-dozen Championship appearances at an average of 34 runs apiece.

But Yorkshire decided to rest Kirby in the Roses fixture so that he could recharge his batteries for the important tussle with Leicestershire at Grace Road next week, so denying England a last look at him.

That may have been a pretty shrewd move on Yorkshire's part.