KEY POINTS:
England arrived in Australia for the Ashes yesterday with the composition of their team still undecided.
All 16 players are in contention for a place in the first test, which begins in Brisbane in 16 days.
The conundrums which will have again invaded the mind of the coach, Duncan Fletcher, concern four crucial areas: the wicketkeeper, the spinner, the fifth specialist batsman and the fourth seamer.
Get it right and England could compete effectively, get it wrong and the urn could change hands before Christmas. Fletcher and his captain, Andrew Flintoff, will seek advice from home, but they will make the final decision.
The identity of the wicketkeeper remains contentious. Chris Read is the man in possession, having replaced Geraint Jones for the final two tests against Pakistan.
Jones, whose head was regularly called for during his 31 consecutive tests, now embodies the dictum that you are never a better player than when you are out of the side. Dropped, paradoxically, because of his poor batting form, he did not get runs for Kent until the fag end of the season.
Read did well with the bat against Pakistan and kept tidily. But during the recent Champions Trophy in India he made hardly a run in England's three matches and was out badly on all three occasions. The straightforward stumping opportunity he spurned against West Indies seemed somehow more culpable.
It may come down to how both perform in the two warm-up matches. Jones, whose keeping has improved, has nothing to lose. It may be that his style of batting is more conducive to Australian pitches.
Similarly, the one spinner's place probably available for most of the series might go to returning veteran Ashley Giles rather than Monty Panesar. It is mostly to do with balance. Giles, fit again after hip surgery, can bat at eight, Panesar cannot.
In the justifiable rush to praise Panesar as an attacking spinner (32 wickets in his first 10 tests, including 19 top-five batsmen), Giles' merits are sometimes forgotten. True, he may be used largely as a defensive, holding bowler but he, too, has exhibited genuine spinner's craft and at Brisbane on England's last tour he took six of the 15 Australian wickets to fall before a broken wrist put him out of the series. Fletcher does not forget such matters.
Three good men and true are available for two batting places. It is difficult to envisage the selectors overlooking Alastair Cook's quietly spectacular entry into international cricket and Ian Bell's rapid advance, which saw him named as the world's best emerging player on Friday.
Paul Collingwood's short backlift and tough composure may not be automatically discarded in the place England find themselves. With all that to consider, the fourth seamer may have to wait.
- INDEPENDENT
