 Russell played 54 Tests for England |
The young pretenders are queuing up to replace the veteran Alec Stewart as England's Test wicket-keeper at the end of the summer. Stewart succeeded Jack Russell - still considered by many of his fellow keepers to be the best around - as England stumper.
On his 40th birthday the evergreen Russell cast his expert eye over the young guns for the BBC Sport Website.
 Russell believes Read has the best all-round game |
Chris Read - Nottinghamshire
I think he is head of the list at the moment because he has got some cricket under his belt and has good experience. He's in his mid-20s, which I think is a good age and he's sorted his game out, both with the bat and with the gloves.
He's got a great attitude and he's a fantastic fighter - you need to be able to take the knocks and come back. I don't think he'll let England down.
James Foster - Essex
He was thrown in at the deep end when he had hardly played any first-class cricket at all and he's still probably trying to sort his game out.
It just takes a bit of time to come to terms with the requirement of keeping wicket and scoring runs and the more cricket he plays the better he'll become.
He's got talent, he just needs more consistency.
Geraint Jones - Kent
I've only played against him a couple of times but I've been very impressed by the way he bats.
He's got a good attitude and it looks like he works hard at his game. He's scored a lot of runs this year and the couple of times I've seen him keep wicket he's kept quite well.
He's jumped to the top of the queue because of the amount of runs he's scored. If he can get his keeping to the same standard as his batting - and I'm not saying it's poor - then he'll be a hell of a cricketer.
 Wallace is not short of talent |
Mark Wallace - Glamorgan
He's got a lot of talent this young lad. Again he's another guy who is very attacking with the bat and although he is probably a little bit too loose outside off stump at the moment to be a consistent scorer of runs I would say his all-round talent is definitely there.
A guy to keep your eye on for the future but I'm not sure he's ready for the England job yet.
Matt Prior - Sussex
Again he is very strong with the bat but does not keep wicket all the time, which I think may be a problem.
It's a role you need to be doing all the time and he mixes it up with Tim Ambrose, who is another prospect.
It's not easy chopping and changing and I think Alec Stewart proved that. Since he's kept wicket regularly over the last few years you can see what a good keeper he's become.
David Nash
He has been around a little bit now and he's got experience. He can score runs as well and he's a steady cricketer.
He's got lots of talent but maybe needs to push himself harder and set his standards really, really high.
He must push out the barriers of what he can achieve as a wicket-keeper - then who knows?
MMIX
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