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England coach Peter Moores has left the door open for former skipper Michael Vaughan to return to the Test side ahead of the tour of the West Indies.

Vaughan spent five years as captain of both the Test team and one-day side after taking over from Nasser Hussain in 2003.

He stepped down in August and, despite having played no international cricket and having little success in the domestic game, the 34-year-old was awarded a central contract by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

England have just returned from India where they went down to a 1-0 series defeat which followed a 5-0 drubbing in the one-dayers which were cut short by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month.

Vaughan was not selected for the tour, although he trained with the elite performance squad in Bangalore, and he has consistently made clear his ambition to play in next summer's Ashes.

The Yorkshire player has been touted to return for next year's trip to the West Indies and Moores refused to rule out such a possibility.

Moores told Sky Sports News: "Michael has had no cricket.

"But we have got to look at where we are now as a team and what we think is right to go forward as a batting unit.

"So we will look at those decisions once the dust has settled, get the views of people like [national selector] Geoff Miller, and the views of the side of the camp and make our decisions to announce in the new year.

"Michael made a very strong point he wants to play for England again, he is very keen to, and with that committed himself to go to Bangalore for the performance camp.

"Unfortunately, with the terrorist action in Mumbai it was cut short.

"But we do know in Michael we have someone who - one, is outstanding as an individual but is also a fantastic player.

"We have to weigh all that up about the players we've got in the squad at the moment.

"We left out Owais Shah for the two tests after doing very well in the one-dayers and is pushing very hard for his Test place.

"So we have to look at that and say once Christmas is finished and make our decisions and pick what we think is the best squad to go and perform in the West Indies and following the West Indies away and at home we've got the big Ashes coming up."

Former captain Nasser Hussain, however, does not believe Vaughan has justified a return to the Test side, despite the struggles of Ian Bell who he has been tipped to replace.

In his column in the Daily Mail, Hussain wrote: "Bringing him back at this stage cannot be justified and would create more problems than it solves.

"Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Michael's batting and the experience he would bring as a successful ex-captain.

"I'm also well aware that Kevin Pietersen is close to him and may want him on the board. But the time isn't right.

"Since retiring as Test skipper in the summer, Michael has done nothing to justify winning back a place in England's top order.

"Michael has admitted that his target is to be back in the England team when Australia come over for the Ashes series but the way to do that is to score hundreds for Yorkshire at the start of the season.

"Then, as a class player in form, he would deserve another chance."

SportingLife / Eurosport