Matt Prior gets the fumbles again

Scorecard: Second Test, England v India

Quick Single: Rahane leads Lord's recovery

The international future of veteran England wicketkeeper Matt Prior remains uncertain after another poor display behind the stumps on the opening day of the second Test against India.

The 32-year-old had returned to the England side just last month after he was dropped during their disastrous tour of Australia last summer.

Prior put down two chances and conceded 17 byes on Thursday as India moved to 9-290 at stumps on a Lord's surface that was almost as green as the lush outfield.

Prior's sloppy performance came after he missed two chances in the first Test at Trent Bridge, and dropped an absolute sitter from Kumar Sangakkara during the second Test against Sri Lanka last month.

Prior was dropped after the third Commonwealth Bank Ashes Test in Perth with Australia already 3-0 up, averaging just 17.83 and having had a poor series with the gloves.

He was replaced during that series by Jonny Bairstow, but the Yorkshireman broke a finger playing for his county, attempting to take a leg-side delivery from Liam Plunkett.

That injury, plus England's desire to consolidate following the off-field ructions caused by the sacking of Kevin Pietersen, lead to Prior returning to the Test XI but with his previous status as the team's vice-captain taken by Ian Bell.

Now with Jos Buttler continuing to show his wares in limited-overs cricket for England, Prior, who has been battling achilles and thigh injuries of his own, is under ever-increasing pressure to avoid being dropped for the second time in just four Tests.

Sections of the English press weren't shy of laying into Prior, with Simon Hughes in The Telegraph writing that the 'keeper's performance on Thursday provided "a realisation that the ravages of time are catching up with him".

"It had been a wretched summer for Matt Prior even before Thursday," Hughes wrote.

"But after a day spent diving often in vain to gather England’s scattergun bowling and in which he missed two decent chances, he cut a sad figure.

"It will have been an unhappy England dressing room on Thursday night. On that green mamba of a pitch England should have bowled India out for 200 and Prior should have taken five catches.

"Instead he grasped two and the reality that time waits for no man."

The first of Prior's mishaps at Lord's came in just the fourth over the morning when he put down a chance low to his right off the bowling of Stuart Broad.

The batsman, Murali Vijay, was also the beneficiary of Prior's butterfingers at Nottingham last week.

Virat Kohli was the next India batsman to be let off the hook on Thursday, with Prior dropping a simple edge off the bowling of Moeen Ali the ball before lunch.

Writing in the London Evening Standard, Tom Collomosse was scathing in his assessment of Prior.

"During a summer in which the doubts have surrounded their captain, there is suddenly another key man in the spotlight for England: wicketkeeper Matt Prior," Collomosse wrote.

"A stalwart for the team for the majority of his 79 Tests since making his debut in 2007, Prior’s glovework suddenly looks alarmingly vulnerable.

"Perhaps he is troubled by a right thigh problem but if so, he should not be playing."

The knives were already being sharpened for Prior even before his untidy performance at Lord's, especially given Buttler's brilliant limited-overs form earlier in the summer.

The 23-year-old averaged 57.33 in the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, highlighted by a blistering 121 off 74 balls at Lord's.

Captain Alastair Cook and Buttler both dismissed any talk that the inexperienced gloveman would be handed a Test debut this year, with the pair agreeing he wasn't ready for Test cricket.

But, writing in The Daily Mail on Sunday, Lawrence Booth said Prior's bumbling form has brought Buttler firmly into calculations.

"It’s hard to be over-critical of (Prior's) batting ... but his glovework is another matter," Booth wrote.

"Whether Buttler would have snaffled (Prior's dropped chances) may no longer be the point.

"He is 23, full of drive and invention, and is averaging 40 for struggling Lancashire. He is just the sort of cricketer, in other words, who might fit neatly into the template of a brave new era."