England refreshed for demanding slog

A year of controversy, upheaval, no little pain and then the shoots of a recovery is reflected in England's significantly new-look central contracts list. Such is the yearly cycle of the deals that most of the changes could be seen from some way out, but the announcement of the new batch does act as something of a full stop on a period where stability has been in short supply.

The six new faces - Gary Ballance, Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes - all made their Test debuts in the last months 12 months; their inclusions in the central contracts both highlights the influx of fresh blood that was needed and the fact that, in a difficult year, the selectors have made some shrewd decisions.

Purely on results, you could argue that Jordan, Woakes and Stokes - plus the retention of Steven Finn, who has been through a traumatic rebuilding of his game - were borderline decisions, but in deciding who is offered contracts the selectors need to gaze somewhat into their crystal ball or, perhaps more prosaically, look at the daunting Future Tours Programme in front of them.

England needed six fast bowlers this season to get through the seven Tests against Sri Lanka and India. The fact James Anderson and Stuart Broad, the latter with a dodgy knee, managed the full set shows the value of looking after your premier bowlers. The nine months of Test cricket they have from April 2015 to January 2016, on the back of a World Cup, could require even greater depth in the pace department. England's management want to be able to have control over their most precious resources, even if some of them remain rough diamonds.

The one of the summer sextet not to make the main contracts list is Liam Plunkett. He can count himself unfortunate after playing the first four Tests of the season before succumbing to an ankle injury. More significance has been placed on Finn, although that is likely to be because he is a bowler who the selectors envisage playing all three formats.

The fact that Finn is among the frontline pack is huge credit to the man himself. He was broken, and nearly beaten, when he returned from Australia in early January. His game was stripped back to the bare bones; he was almost learning to bowl again. As was to be expected progress was not always smooth - and the job is not yet complete - but in his last couple of outings against India, the ODI at Headingley and T20 at Edgbaston, the pace he generated suggests all the elements are starting to click.

The most obvious 'situation vacant' sign - Moeen has suggested he can perform the spin-bowling role adequately and there is still more to come - is a Test opening partner for Alastair Cook. Sam Robson has not found a place in either the central or, perhaps most instructively, incremental contract lists, whereas Alex Hales is included in the second batch (as is Ravi Bopara which indicates he will soon be back in the one-day side).

Robson's return from seven Tests - 336 runs at 30.54 with one hundred - was not enough to end debate about a position which has been a revolving door since Andrew Strauss' retirement. On Wednesday, Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire director of cricket and England selector, said that Hales was some way off being a Test cricketer but then, earlier this season, Cook was not convinced that Buttler was ready for promotion before hands were forced by Matt Prior's injury.

Hales could yet change minds with a barnstorming six months in one-day cricket but Robson's main challenger is shaping to be Yorkshire's Adam Lyth. The Lions tour to South Africa should be a fascinating audition.

The way the changes of personnel have happened means no county is likely to be especially worse off by having to accommodate a high-value player back on their books. Sussex take back Prior but hand over Jordan, Warwickshire swap Woakes for Jonathan Trott and for Yorkshire, Ballance goes to England's payroll and Tim Bresnan is back on county wages.

Worcestershire, Durham and Lancashire, meanwhile, may be able to redistribute the money that previously went towards Moeen, Stokes and Buttler. If England's selectors have got their judgements right, and these young players become long-term members of the national teams, their counties will not see much of them over the next decade.