THE seeds of Marcus Trescothick's emergence as England's surprise package of the summer were sowed by an outstanding performance for Somerset in Taunton at the end of last season.

The 24-year-old left-hander has quickly become a great success during England's NatWest Triangular Series campaign, coming into the squad initially as temporary cover for the injured Nick Knight and Nasser Hussain.

Since being added to the party, however, he has rapidly become an integral member of the starting line-up through the strength of his performances during England's four matches.

Those fine innings culminated in an unbeaten 87 off just 106 deliveries that saw him win the man-of-the-match award in Saturday's ten-wicket victory over West Indies at Chester-le-Street.

Those displays have demanded his inclusion for the remainder of the tournament regardless of Hussain's and Knight's recovery, while he will almost certainly feature in England's squad for the third Test against West Indies, due to be announced on July 30.

But the decision to choose Trescothick ahead of other more successful members of last winter's A tour to Bangladesh and New Zealand like David Sales, Aftab Habib and Vikram Solanki was made by incoming coach Duncan Fletcher during the penultimate round of championship matches at the end of last season.

Fletcher had already been appointed as the new coach but was not due to take up his duties until the following month.

But that did not stop him sitting up and taking notice of Trescothick when Glamorgan visited Taunton.

Trescothick hit a brilliant 167 during that match out of a total of 280, including 25 fours and five sixes - one of which bounced off a tombstone in the nearby St James' churchyard - facing an attack which featured South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis.

''I remember seeing him get that and quite a lot of those runs were against Jacques, which was very impressive,'' recalled Fletcher.

''When I was appointed coach of England in July, I started making some notes on youngsters that Glamorgan were playing against and tried to make some assessments and when you see that kind of innings, you think to yourself that this guy can play.''

That innings effectively clinched his inclusion on the A tour, where he failed to get as many runs as he would have liked and finished below even Chris Schofield in the tour averages with just 28.42.

The memory of that stunning Taunton innings sustained Fletcher, though, and Trescothick was included in their early-season get-together before finally making his senior debut against Zimbabwe at the Oval a week ago.

''He's got a very good temperament in everything he's done, even when they threw him the ball to bowl for the first time he was very relaxed,'' explained Fletcher.

''That tells you a lot about a young player and it's good to see. The way he hits the ball is very important, but the key to it is his temperament - he sits around the changing room as if he had just played any other game.''

Such has been the impact he has made, Trescothick is a nigh on certainty to feature in the Test at Old Trafford on August 3 with even the normally discreet Fletcher conceding the Somerset youngster had done enough to warrant his inclusion.

''I don't think I would be talking out of turn to say he would stand a good chance of selection, and it's the way he's done it as well,'' added Fletcher.

''He's done it with the manner of a good opening batsman. He hasn't really gone in and acted like a pinch-hitter, he just goes in and plays.''

For the time being, though, England are concentrating on the remainder of the one-day tournament and consider the possibility of changes for tomorrow's day-night match against Zimbabwe at Edgbaston.

The current line-up, with Andrew Flintoff playing as a specialist batsman at the expense of off-spinner Robert Croft, has now cruised to two crushing victories over Zimbabwe and West Indies and England will be loath to change a winning side.