Kent spinner James Tredwell jets off to Australia today hoping to secure a place in the England Test side in Sydney.

The 31 year old will arrive half way through the Fourth Test in Melbourne after a late call up following Graeme Swann’s shock retirement.

With Monty Panesar and Scott Borthwick already part of the squad and competition stiff for the final Test of the five match series, Tredwell knows he stands every chance of carrying the drinks once again, but has told KSN he wants to do everything in his power to get a game.

SWann’s decision to retire from international cricket came as a bolt out of the blue and Tredwell explained how he found out he was not only going to be going to Australia for the T20 and One Day International series:

“It’s nice to know I’m still in their thoughts and in terms of logistics in was easy just to pull my flight forward.”

“It was James Whitaker that gave me the call to say I was going and it’s not the first time I have had the call to say I’d be joining up with the squad.”

“My wife and I were laying in bed watching the news come in that Swanny was going to be retiring and then the phone rang, but it was nice to receive that call.”

“Ideally I’d like to be in the squad from the beginning, but I guess that’s the challenge for me now.”

With England 3-0 down in the series and looking to restore some pride, Tredwell is hoping he’s not just going out to make up the numbers and has been working hard to show that he’s ready to play if called upon:

“I’m under no illusions that I’ll out there and be shipped straight into the team, but I think if conditions allow and if I’ve done all I can previous to the day of the game, then you never know.”

“If they decide to go in with two spinners at Sydney, hopefully I will be one of the ones they choose, but they’ve got Scott Borthwick there, so they’ve got options.”

Swann’s retirement caught most of the cricketing world by surprise, but Tredwell admitted he’d seen that there was some indications he might be leaning that way since the summer:

“It was a big shock and there have been some questions about his timing, but having played a fair bit of One Day cricket in the summer, I got the impression he was thinking along those lines in One Day cricket, but I didn’t see that he’d be thinking about complete retirement.”

“Thankfully I’m not at that point at the moment, but I guess when you do get to that point, when you’ve had enough, there’s not much point carrying on.”

Swann’s retirement opens the door for Tredwell who has made just the one Test appearance against Bangladesh in March 2010 and the Kent spinner is hoping he can now live up to the expectation of whoever replaces the Nottinghamshire man:

“I guess that is down to me. You can have people stand in your way, but you need to perform yourself and I think I have certainly done that in One Day cricket.”

“I think the last few months have been fruitful in that regard and now that is the challenge to make that happen in the longer form of the game.”

“It’s a great opportunity for someone at this point and they are massive shoes to fill as he’s been a magnificent performer for England over the last six or seven years.”

Being under the selector’s noses in the coming weeks, Tredwell has a great chance to push his case for selection in the long term, but he realises he faces stiff competition:

“Monty is in the box seat at the moment and a couple of good performances over the next few Tests and he is in the driving seat.”

“Ultimately, it is down to us to put performances in and the decision will be down to the selectors.”

Tredwell will go straight from competing for a place in the Test side to being the leading spinner for the T20 and ODI games against Australia and he told KSN how he’d been watching a bit of the Big Bash to keep an eye on some of the people he could well end up facing:

“I think you’ve always got to be doing a bit of analysis, but I saw a lot of some of their guys over the summer, so I don’t really need to see too much more footage, but I’ve watched a lot of the Test series and some of the Big Bash.”

“You can have all the plans in the world, but ultimately you can go out on the field and they don’t work and then you’ve got to come up with something else.”

“You try to be as well planned as you can, but you just hope your skills are up to the challenges you come up against.”

Like most families over Christmas, Tredwell spent it with his family and being a father of two now, he told KSN how he was glad that he’s been allowed the time at home and was given until Boxing Day before jetting off:

“It’s always nice to be home at Christmas and to be an extra pair of hands to help out.”

“I could well have jetted off and left the wife to it for the whole of Christmas, but I think that would have gone down like a lead balloon!”

“Even if I’d have left for Australia when I got the call, I wouldn’t have made it for the Melbourne game, so it was nice of them to allow me to spend Christmas at home.”