Shane Warne is back. Seven years to the day after he made his international debut, 313 wickets later, and more than nine months since the wear and tear on the highest-profile shoulder in the business threatened to put an end to his career, the most successful spin bowler Test cricket has seen will return for Australia on the ground where he made his debut.

In the aftermath of England's victory in the Melbourne twilight, the Australia selectors yesterday named Warne in their squad of 12 for the final Test which begins in Sydney on Saturday. He replaces the debutante pace-man Matthew Nicholson.

So further spice has been added to a series that until the final dramatic hour or so of Tuesday appeared to be an anti-climax waiting to happen. The Australia team for Sydney was in all probability selected when the Melbourne Test seemed beyond England, so there is no suspicion of panic on the selectors' part.

"To a certain extent I feel I am starting my career again. My life has been like a soap opera, like a drama the last six months," Warne said. "This year hasn't been one of the best but I'm now ready to play Test cricket again."

He will probably play in tandem with the other leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, whose injured thigh does not seem as serious as first thought.

"Over the last five or six years playing against England, they have been weak against leg-spin," Warne said. "I would say that England don't play leggies well. Obviously the track record in Sydney suggests that the wicket is going to turn."

There can be no one who does not rejoice that an incredible talent is back in the game. Years ago, when keyhole-surgery techniques were not available, the debilitating breakdown in his right shoulder, a result of countless overs of unnatural contortion as he went through his repertoire of leg-breaks, googlies, top-spinners, flippers and the rest, would almost certainly have resulted in retirement and an arthritic future.

Warne was, he admitted yesterday, genuinely scared that he, a fellow with no qualification other than the capacity to purvey leg-spin like a god, would have nothing left in his professional life. Even after the operation, following on finger surgery, the prognosis was a recovery period of up to two years. And he screwed up his face at the notion that he would then be 31.

Warne began the long road back when the England team were beginning their pre-series preparations in Perth. A few overs for his club side St Kilda, nothing flash, just rolling his arm over; then eight overs in a one-day game for Victoria; then a few more overs in a Shield game; then even more in the next.

Finally, last week, he played against New South Wales.

There was not much to show for it in his figures but the trademark in-swerve from the massively imparted spin was there. So he sought out the opinion of his Australia team-mates and they gave him every encouragement. "That made me feel better, and then when I pulled up fine with my shoulder after bowling so many overs, I thought I was ready."

So do the Australia selectors. England beware.