Prior using bat to win England keeper's role

"The temperature was in the 40s most days and the humidity was 90 per cent. We knew we had to get a lot of fluids on board but at times we had to hang on for dear life."

Even that notorious hard nut Rod Marsh, coaching an A tour for the last time, lost a stone in weight as he struggled to cope with the intense heat.

Did Prior, whose manager is Alec Stewart, enjoy working with the legendary Aussie?

"Rod has been brilliant to me. He plays his cricket hard and wants 110 per cent from all his players. To work with a former keeper was a great help. We spoke a lot about technique and footwork."

Having been so pragmatic in promoting Jones, the England selectors are being encouraged in some quarters to do the same with Prior.

Although Chris Read shadowed Jones in South Africa over the winter and is regarded as one of the world's finest glovesmen, the England management's misgivings about his batting could see Prior leapfrog him to become Jones' heir apparent this summer.

Prior has heard the whispers. "A few people have pushed my name," he said. "When I went away to Sri Lanka my goal was to put my face in the shop window.

"I need to ignore what people are saying and not let it distract me. I'm going to get my head down, work hard and get the scores.

"Obviously, there's a lot of talk about the keeping situation. It's only by getting runs and taking catches that I'm going to get noticed."

Should Jones suffer a sustained loss of form or an injury, then Sussex's spirited youngster is offering an impressive case to get the summons from the selectors.

He is not yet a Test-class wicketkeeper but he is a batsman of great potential, with six Championship hundreds in two seasons and a healthy first-class average of 39.07, higher, it should be noted, than either Jones (38.94) or Read (28.23).

Prior said: "If anything happened to Geraint, the selectors would look at the stats and performances and whoever they feel is the best will get the opportunity.

"David Graveney [the chairman of selectors] was out in Dubai and Sri Lanka for a while. He said, 'You are doing well, get your head down, keep working hard, obviously you know the situation with the keeping'."

There is a suspicion that Jones, 29 in July, is merely keeping the seat warm. The future, to the disgust of many of the purists, belongs to the batsman-keeper rather than the keeper-batsman.

Prior, who admits "I've always been a batter first" could turn out to be the man England are waiting for.