England must not let Ashes cloud their focus

In this curiously muddled season and after a break of almost eight weeks, England will resume playing Test matches next week. It has been a peculiar way to demonstrate the significance of the longer form of the game in this country: the high summer has been given over to a stream of one-day cricket and two neutral Test matches.

One of those neutral teams, Pakistan, will be England's opposition for four matches, the first of which begins at Trent Bridge next Thursday. England will announce a squad of 13 tomorrow and if they did not know before the events at Headingley they will now recognise that they are likely to be in a proper contest. Pakistan, divided, temperamental, fractious Pakistan, are suddenly no pushovers.

All England eyes will be on the Ashes, which is both a spur and a hindrance. The players are aware that a good performance or two and they will be on the plane trying to win the biggest prize of all. But they also have to concentrate on the here and now. Lose to this raw Pakistan side at home and it will be difficult to generate self-belief for the winter mission.

There will be no question of resting players for the forthcoming series but equally England must take a squad to Australia, each member of which can step comfortably into the starting XI. They already know the identity of the majority but there are fringe places and the foot injury to Ian Bell, which will force him to miss the whole series, at least opens up a middle-order batting place.

England will need Bell in Brisbane on 25 November when the Ashes quest begins but they will need a capable substitute should there be injury or loss of form elsewhere. As the captain, Andrew Strauss, said: "You never know about injuries as in Ian Bell's case, that is why it is so important to have 14 or 15 to pick from.

"One of the lessons from the last Ashes was if we didn't have our first XI fully fit then the guys coming in were not experienced enough or confident enough to take the places and fulfil those roles. We want a settled side and guys that know their roles inside out but you can't rely on just 11 players. We won't be resting players for this series."

England appear to have settled on a strategy of playing six batsmen and four bowlers. They insist that they remain flexible on the issue but since the Ashes were reclaimed at The Oval last August, they have played eight Tests matches in seven of which they have fielded only four front-line bowlers.

It enabled them to draw a Test series in South Africa but the trouble is that England's batsmen do not bowl much. In most cases it is not even a weak second suit. If one of the quartet is off colour, therefore, it makes it that much harder to take 20 wickets.

It also makes the selection of the bowling places a delicate operation. As things stand only two bowlers' places would seem to be guaranteed for Brisbane, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann. Jimmy Anderson has some work to do after a sequence of moderate performances when the ball refused to swing, with Steve Finn, Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad all staking claims of varying credibility.

Bell's absence has probably saved Eoin Morgan's place for now. Morgan has done nothing particularly right or wrong in his two Test matches so far but he did not quite look the dashing player he is in limited-overs cricket. After scoring two hundreds for Essex in their Championship match against Yorkshire this week Ravi Bopara has probably done enough to earn a recall to the Test squad.

Strauss said: "There is everything to play for as far as Australia is concerned. These next four Test matches are going to be an opportunity for people to put their hand up and say 'pick me'. Clearly when you go on tour you need a squad of 15 players who you can be comfortable about doing a job for you and we're not far away from that."

Probable England squad

To face Pakistan at Trent Bridge starting on Thursday:

A J Strauss (Middlesex, captain)

A N Cook (Essex)

I J L Trott (Warwickshire)

K P Pietersen (Hampshire)

P D Collingwood (Durham)

E J G Morgan (Middlesex)

M J Prior (Sussex, wicketkeeper)

G P Swann (Nottinghamshire)

S C J Broad (Nottinghamshire)

J M Anderson (Lancashire)

S T Finn (Middlesex)

R S Bopara (Essex)

T T Bresnan (Yorkshire)