Moores to Stick With Same Men But Bell Shows Cracks

The England selectors will tomorrow name an unchanged squad for the final Test which begins at The Oval on Thursday. With India one up thanks to their fine and deserved win at Trent Bridge but still recognizing that the weather prevented Michael Vaughan's side taking an early lead at Lord's, Peter Moores will place his trust in the same starting XI with, one hopes, instructions to grow up.

In the continuing absence of Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, all of whom are working their way back to full fitness to a varying degree, there will be little imperative to change a pace-bowling attack that, although outbowled by Zaheer Khan, more than held their own against the remainder of their Indian counterparts.

Of the two under any threat at all, Ryan Sidebottom was simply outstanding and James Anderson has clearly got back most of the verve and pace that characterized his introduction to international cricket when he was an innocent abroad and before attempts to correct his perceived faults first confused and then all but ruined him. The consistency is starting to get there and he has the capacity to get out good players on the best pitches. His figures at Trent Bridge do not do him justice, as was the case with Sidebottom.

Chris Tremlett, meanwhile, acquitted himself well enough in conditions that increasingly helped him. Another 80-odd runs from his batsmen and he might have won the game for England. If it still requires a flat pitch and destructive batsmen to test his mettle if not his skill, then The Oval, even after a welcome dry spell, may not provide that and he could prosper yet again. Stuart Broad, for the sake of consistency and to ensure that he continues his preparation as part of an England set-up of which he will be a member for some time, will be named in a party of 12 although he will not expect to play.

Instead it is the batting, technically and mentally poor in the crucial first innings at Trent Bridge, which has to look in the mirror. Alastair Cook's run of lbws is indicative of a technical fault that Andy Flower in particular, as a fellow left-hander, will have been addressing over the past few days, but he learns all the time. Andrew Strauss is regarded as a scrapper and, if he has played indifferently for a while, the manner in which he adjusted for the second innings in Nottingham and played better than he has for a year, was encouraging.

It is Ian Bell, though, who provides the conundrum, a young man who was voted ICC Emerging Player of the Year but who has struggled to put together scores against opposition who have the discipline and skill to probe away outside off-stump, where he tends to allow his bat to be dragged wide. Owais Shah, who will be included in the one-day side, cannot be expected to wait for ever.

Probable England squad M Vaughan (Yorkshire, capt), A Cook (Essex), A Strauss (Middlesex), K Pietersen (Hampshire), P Collingwood (Durham), I Bell (Warwickshire), M Prior (Sussex, wkt), R Sidebottom (Notts), C Tremlett (Hampshire), M Panesar (Northants), J Anderson (Lancashire), S Broad (Leicestershire).