THE James Harris story is one with which Durham are all too familiar, having suffered years of frustration with Liam Plunkett prior to his rehabilitation with Yorkshire.

Like Plunkett, Harris was subjected to the tinkering of England coaches who wanted him to bowl faster and still “swing it round corners”, as he put it following his nine for 34 against Durham at Lord's on Tuesday.

His previous best figures were seven for 66 for Glamorgan at Bristol two days after his 17th birthday, which immediately earmarked him as an England prospect.

Once the tinkering started the Swansea lad didn't kick on as hoped and he took the agonising decision to leave Glamorgan after the 2012 season. Virtually every county, including Durham, expressed an interest, but the lure of Lord's took him to Middlesex.

Things went so badly that he went back to Glamorgan on loan for the second half of last season, but still ended the campaign with only 17 championship wickets. He has 26 from three games this season.

“The coaches at Loughborough tried to remodel my action to generate extra pace,” he said. “It was feeling horrible and I'd stopped hitting the seam, so I decided to go back to being as natural as possible.

“When I was back at Glamorgan I asked people like Steve Watkin and Robert Croft what they thought because they had seen me grow up.

“It's taken a long time and there have been a lot of cold, dark hours in the Finchley Indoor School, but now it's back to feeling comfortable.”

The day after Chris Rushworth was spoken of as an Ashes candidate he was upstaged by Harris, increasing the competition for Plunkett and Mark Wood, who awaits his England debut against Ireland at Malahide tomorrow.

After that he will be available for Durham's home match against Nottinghamshire, starting on Sunday. With Graham Onions fit to return they will be spoilt for choice for seamers, but Ben Stokes will not be available to strengthen the batting.

Along with most of the team who played in the final Test in the West Indies he has been told to rest and Durham's hopes of seeing him for the opening Twenty20 match, at home to Northamptonshire next Friday, have also been dashed.

The squad for the first Test against New Zealand, starting on May 21 will be announced next Thursday and those included will not be available for the first batch of T20 matches.

After winning their first two games, Durham's second innings collapse at Lord's provided a reality check in terms of their batting.

Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick have come through in recent years, but the only other Durham-born batsman to have made 1,000 championship runs in a season is Paul Collingwood.

If, as expected, this is his final season there will be a gaping hole to fill in a middle order which currently looks fragile.

They will be reluctant to recall Gordon Muchall, who didn't play in this week's Second X1 Championship match at Richmond, but the time cannot be far away when they will have to consider bringing in Stuart Poynter for Phil Mustard.

The wicketkeeper looked utterly nonplussed when he was bowled off his pads by Adam Voges' occasional left-arm spin in making one and three at Lord's.

*No play was possible on the second and third days of the Second X1 Championship match at Richmond. Nottinghamshire reached 121 for one on the first day in reply to Durham's 235, of which Reece Carr made 61 and Stuart Poynter 50. The teams are due to meet in a Second X1 Trophy 50-over match at the same venue today.