Peter Ingram gets a good opportunity at Sri Lanka Tri Series 2010

Peter Ingram has been recalled in the New Zealand squad to replace Jesse Ryder as an opening batting option ahead of the tri-series in Sri Lanka which is scheduled to kick off from August 10.

The injury of Jesse Ryder and the unavailability of Aaron Redmond made an opportunity for him to get a place in the national squad.

On Wednesday, Jesse Ryder withdrew his name from the squad announced for Sri Lanka tournament due to his elbow injury. However, Aaron Redmond was not available due to his wedding out of the country.

The reason of selecting Peter Ingram was that coach and selectors wanted an experienced opener for the replacement.

Peter Ingram has already played 6 ODI matches and two Tests. He last played ODI matches against Australia at Hamilton in March 9, 2010. He was dropped out following his poor performance and lack of consistency despite making a dream debut against Bangladesh in February scoring 69 which is his career best performance, averaging 30.16 in the limited version of cricket game. Playing two test matches he has scored 61 runs with an average of 15.25.

This opportunity has become a remarkable challenge for the thirty-one-year-old Ingram not being included in the list of 20 contracted players of New Zealand Cricket announced on Tuesday.

Despite being a prolific run scorer at domestic cricket, he could not shine in the international level. His drop for the second Test against Australia in March indicated that he may fail to prolong his international career. If he fails to use the opportunity then he may not play international cricket ever.

It will be interesting to see if a teacher can be a good player at all.