Lions by name...

A washed-out first day of the 4th Test between England and West Indies and only the 3rd to be held at Durham shifted the spotlight onto the forthcoming one-day series, with the England A team for a one-day game with the West Indies next week being announced while the selectors held talks with captain and coach regarding England's future direction in the one-day game. I say England A, although the collective heart sank on the revelation that England's second string has now become an "exciting new brand" in the form of the so-called England Lions.

Vikram Solanki will captain the side, deprived of players from the four counties (Durham, Hampshire, Essex and Wawrickshire) who will contest the semi-finals of the FP Trophy and is joined by two Worcestershire colleagues in Gareth Batty and Kabir Ali. That just about sums up the rest, with familiar and not so favoured names such as Yardy, Bresnan and Joyce all featuring. Curiously Will Jefferson, seemingly a forgotten man who has played only once for his new county Nottinghamshire this season, was included in the 12-man squad. James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Owais Shah are three who will hope to use the game as a platform for recognition when the senior squad is announced, while Alex Gidman is the wild card, a seam-bowling all-rounder which England lack in the absence of Andrew Flintoff.

While England's Test team has, and will continue to cope in the absence of Flintoff, his injured ankle exposes a deep flaw in a one-day side riddled with problems. With Ravi Bopara likely to bat either at 6 or 3, and Matt Prior at 7 or as an opener, England will have trouble filling the No.8 position without seriously comprimising either batting or bowling depth. A spin-bowling all-rounder, such as Blackwell or Yardy could fill the void, but that would probably mean the exclusion of Monty Panesar, while England are not exactly flush with pace-bowling resources as we stand. Steve Harmison is retired from ODIs, Matthew Hoggard might as well, while Mahmood is injured and Plunkett consigned to county cricket. Stuart Broad has just started to play again after injury and long-term absentee Simon Jones is no closer to full-recovery than at the start of the season. James Anderson, despite meagre returns for Lancashire, will have to lead the attack, and he should be partnered by Ryan Sidebottom, blessed unlike any other England bowler who plays ODIs with the gift of accuracy and who could fulfill a similar role for England as does Nathan Bracken, very successfully, for Australia. If Panesar is to be sacrificed for a slow bowler who can bat, England's options for the third seamer are sparse. Broad could get the call, but would be better off easing back in with his county, while past him the selectors will have to look at someone like Graham Onions or Kabir Ali, who has been in good form for Worcestershire but has a long way to go before he can erase the memories of his last game in an England shirt and whose international career was thought to be, like that game, best forgotten.

And the composition of the top-half of the team will be no less problematic. During the World Cup the plight of England's top 3 became an issue as much chewed over by the cognoscenti as was Tony Blair's dodgy dossier back in 2003, although the team management seemed to be the only people in ignorance of its need to be "sexed up". While Jayasuriya flashed and Hayden flattened, England's trusty plodders ground, ground and then got out, leaving a heavy burden too great even for an excellent middle-order to manage. Marcus Trescothick, whose ample frame has covered the void for a good while, is the obvious choice to return, but his situation is a delicate one which the decent runs he has scored this season for Somerset may not have fully alleviated. England would dearly love Trescothick to return to the one-day side at least, but one senses that this series has come a bit too early, and that the sprawling 7 match series against India in August and September may be a more realistic target. In his likely absence, Matt Prior is likely to get the opportunity alongside Alistair Cook, despite the fact that Prior did not prosper as an opener when previously given the chance, and he now bats in the middle-order for Sussex in one-day cricket. Nevertheless, the impressive start to his Test career along with the presence of his old coach at Sussex should be enough to get him the gig, and it is not stretching a point to say that England are getting desperate. Cook, meanwhile, made an efficient, unnoticed appearence in a sinking ship of a team last year, and could surprise a few people with a wider range of shot than he risks in Tests, but which the Essex faithful will be familiar with from the evidence of a few scintillating innings at county level, including a maiden century on his last appearence between Tests.

One would expect Ian Bell to follow them at 3, although do not discount the possibility that Owais Shah, excellent this season in the one-day competition for Middlesex, could get a chance, adding some flair and impudence which Bell, in no way short of talent, somehow lacks. Ravi Bopara might even continue where he left off in the last World Cup game and where he has produced excellent returns for Essex in both forms of the game. The next two positions can consider themselves filled, with Collingwood and Pietersen, the ying and yang of a yo-yo team, about the only two indelibly inked in on the team-sheet. Unless Moores is adventurous , expect the bright if not so wide-eyed Bopara to fill the Flintoff chasm. Then comes the snag: ideally Prior would come in next to add some ballast to the lower-order and balance things out. However, with a high chance of him opening, England will have to compensate either with an all-rounder or specialist batsman. They do not need the first, while in terms of options there is only a half-empty quart with which to fill the pint-pot. Needless to say, no batsman will be overjoyed by the prospect of going in 5 down, although it would not be a novel experience for someone like Vikram Solanki. It would need to be someone of his ilk, with the power both to accelerate and consolidate, and Shah may find himself deployed out of position. That said, there is a fair chance that Bopara will be the one to drop down, which would be a pity. At 8, England are back to the familiar problem of having no bolwers who really bat, and will proably have to press one of their spinning-all rounders into service. Jamie Dalrymple has probably shot his bolt, while Michael Yardy has only just started his season after having his finger broken playing for MCC in the curtain-raiser. Ian Blackwell, crocked last season with a shoulder-injury that ended his World Cuo hopes, was ecenomical as a bowler when he last played and, if he could somehow get his batting to function at international level, would be useful as a stop-gap at least.

All this deliberation disregards one man, namely Michael Vaughan and specifically, because he should not be in the team. Captain he may be, but his one-day batting record is as poor as his Test captaincy one is good. He has himself freely admitted that he will not be around for the next World Cup in 2011 and, in an interesting comment swamped by the larger ramifications of his interview with the Guardian, he said that he would stand down in Moores expressed a preference not to consider players who have no chance of playing in 2011. David Graveney today expressed the need to be cautious in breaking up the World Cup team, but that must not come at the cost of hampering Peter Moores, who, along with Andy Flower, must be given as free a rein a possible in building England towards respectability in the shorter form of the game. Four years may be "a long time" as Graveney said today, but when it comes to England's one-day teams it is a period which seems to elapse with some haste and the structure required for future success must be laid down as quickly as possible. Over to you then Peter.