England's four-fold target against West Indies

In a perfect world, England wouldn't be meeting West Indies this week. The West Indian batsmen would be trundling around the shires, quietly making the acquaintance of lavish sideways movement. The England players would all be enjoying the sort of extended spell with their counties that Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison and Alastair Cook have had over the past month. And the great treadmill of international cricket would be firmly switched off.

In the real world, a four-Test series starts on Thursday. West Indies have just one goal: to win a Test abroad, against one of the top seven teams, for the first time in seven years. England's targets are more specific ...

It wasn't just in the World Cup that England's top three were too tentative. They were mousey in the Ashes too. Without Marcus Trescothick, they have yet to strike the right balance between biffing and blocking. In Australia Andrew Strauss tried, unselfishly, to play the Trescothick role, but he kept holing out for 25 or 30.

It looks as if England are sticking with their top three of Strauss, Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, despite the strong claims of Owais Shah, happily recalled after being harshly treated by the Fletcher-Vaughan regime. These three have a golden opportunity to assert themselves against a modest attack, then step up a notch against India's seamers, and gather some confidence to take into the winter, when they face a more searching inquisition from Vaas and Malinga.

Nearly all good teams have big figures at numbers six and seven, to get them out of trouble when they are 100 for 5, or to grind opponents down when they're past 300. In England's world-beating line-up of 2004 and 2005, these roles were filled by Andrew Flintoff and Geraint Jones. In 2006-07, Flintoff was overburdened and out of form, and Jones had become a walking wicket, dropped twice in successive series in favour of Chris Read.

Now Read too has been dropped and England are trying Matt Prior. Flintoff is halfway back to form. Last time West Indies toured England, he pummelled their bowlers for 387 runs at 64. But he still has to bat like a full allrounder again. Prior has a trickier task: establishing himself in international cricket when even the chairman of selectors concedes that there are five or six other wicketkeepers with equal claims. He is England's fourth keeper in five months, which is exactly the sort of indecision the selectors are supposed to have renounced. He has the batting ability to be a forceful number seven, but in 12 one-day internationals and a few tour games for England, he has been twitchy and hapless.

It shouldn't be much to ask. England's bowlers are supposed to be the best in the land. Could they please land the ball where they want to?

Duncan Fletcher, so careful in so many ways, threw caution to the wind when it came to fast bowling. He was prepared to put up with almost any old filth as long as it was delivered at pace, with a bit of reverse swing. Thankfully, England have now left Saj Mahmood to carry on learning his trade at Lancashire, and Jimmy Anderson has been called up only as a stand-by for Flintoff.

They have stuck with Steve Harmison, whose winter shockers have been swiftly forgiven, and Liam Plunkett, whose pluck and promise are sometimes accompanied by a certain waywardness. These two need to repay the selectors' faith by having a little contest between themselves: to see who can do the better Glenn McGrath impression.

There are whispers that England's team spirit, so strong in 2004 and 2005, has faded, and cliques have developed. They are not a good enough team to do without it: they need to be more than the sum of their parts. But this could work in favour of the new coaching team of Peter Moores and Andy Flower, because it gives them something to work on right away.

If Flintoff is fit, he will be playing under Strauss for the first time, which will make things more interesting © Getty Images

England have named the right stand-in captain in Strauss, although David Graveney's reasoning (in effect: we want Fred to work on his own game) was mealy-mouthed. If Flintoff is fit, he will be playing under Strauss for the first time, which will make things more interesting. It is unlikely to be a close series, but it should be a revealing one.

Meanwhile, almost unnoticed, the schedule for the first Twenty20 World Cup has been published. And it's a dud. Eleven of the 27 games are at 10am or 2pm on weekdays, which defeats the point of Twenty20 - that it can be enjoyed after work. The whole thing starts only three days after the England-India one-day series ends, which is absurd, but may just nudge both teams into picking some Twenty20 specialists. And several of the teams have to play matches on successive days, which will hardly be conducive to excellence. The ICC's dismal record at running tournaments looks set to continue.