Monday, October 29, 2001 David Fulton, the Kent opener, is on unofficial standby for England's tour of India in case Marcus Trescothick drops out. If he does play for England, Wisden's Steven Lynch will be partly responsible, as he explains ...

It was six years ago that I first saw David Fulton bat. Actually I shouldn't have seen him at all – he was only playing in the 1995 Benson & Hedges Cup final because Mark Benson, Kent's captain, had broken a finger.

But Fulton did play at Lord's, and opened in Kent's reply to Lancashire's 274 for 7 ... without a helmet, but with a floppy hat. Since Wasim Akram was going to be steaming in with the new ball this was quite a statement. (And if Fulton had known that Wasim had been hypnotised by his wife before the match and beseeched to do his best, he might have thought again.)

Like any fast bowler worth his salt, Wasim was outraged by such bare-faced insolence, and soon hit Fulton on the shoulder with a bouncer. Eventually the new boy was trapped leg-before by one from Glen Chapple that kept low. But he had made a handy 25, and shown enough flourishes – upright defence, good on-drive – to conjure up memories of Greg Chappell batting.

When I got back to the Wisden office I confidently announced, to muffled mirth, that I had seen someone who was going to play for England. The only other player I've ever been so bullish about was Robert Croft, in 1991, five years before he got the call.

So it was slightly disheartening when Fulton went on for what seemed like years scoring an early century against Cambridge University and then seizing up. Everyone knew he should be scoring more runs, and he could catch like a clam, so Kent kept him on.

I had almost forgotten my rash prediction by last summer, when suddenly Fulton began batting less like Glen Chapple and more like Greg again. This time the centuries weren't just against the universities – there were nine in all, including a double and a single ton against Somerset at Canterbury, in a game I happened to be covering for the Sunday Telegraph.

He was still driving like a blond Boycott. And close-catching like a silkier Solkar. So it wasn't just in a desperate bid to fulfil my earlier prophecy that I wrote that England might call him up. I suggested that if they were going to do so, they should do so then, when he was in the middle of a patch so purple that the Queen Mother might have been embarrassed by its purpleness. I was thinking back to that crazy year when a perplexed Wayne Larkins was called up to open for England while averaging a less-than-princely six.

It didn't happen then (August 2001), and Fulton didn't make any of England's winter touring parties, which seemed a bit harsh for the top English runscorer of the season and the only non-Aussie in the top eight of the batting averages. Yes, he's 29. Yes, he might be found out by quick bowling – but that will only be discovered if he's confronted by it (anyway, he's more sensible now, and wears a helmet).

So if Fulton does come in for Marcus Trescothick in India – a tour when fast bowling won't be high on the agenda – I think he'll do well. And he will swell my England-prediction percentage to 100%.

Looking back at the Wisden Almanack report of that 1995 final, I was impressed to find the good book saying: "Fulton looked both promising and audacious – spurning a helmet for a sunhat, and receiving a blow on the shoulder from Wasim Akram for his cheek." Aha, I thought, someone else had spotted the spark ... until I realised that I'd written the report myself. We're not related, honest.

Steven Lynch is database director of Wisden.com.

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