Talk up England and they’ll always let you down

Not every England supporter takes the view that following their team should involve mindless chanting and making sure that the beer consumption never dips far below an asking rate of six an over, but they at least share the belief that being barmy is a minimum requirement. In the Sunday Times, Martin Johnson says England's Champions Trophy exit was the kind of gung-ho death so redolent of the Light Brigade that the England captain’s nickname can now be officially altered from Lord Brocket to Lord Cardigan.

You could also say that reaching the semi-final was an achievement in itself, although if you believe the cliché about a good team not becoming a bad one overnight, the opposite is also true. In recent times selection, in personnel and batting order, appears to have involved heavy reliance on a pin and a blindfold, while historically, they haven’t played enough of this type of cricket to make consistently clear decisions in different situations.

In the Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry looks at England's probable squads for the upcoming South Africa tour and says that Owais Shah's erratic form leaves his spot under threat from Jonathan Trott. If England's selectors hold their meeting on Tuesday at Lord's, Shah might decide to use his position as a Middlesex player to rummage through the rubbish bins afterward.

The Observer's David Hopps writes that the England hierarchy believe that the side must be rigorous and decisive in what they want. Whether England have the ability to play with attacking intent remains questionable, but what is clear is that for it to have maximum chance of success the selectors must embrace the concept by choosing those most suited to it.