Saturday sees the start of England's One Day International series against the West Indies and there's plenty for the selectors to mull over as they look to piece together a side capable of beating the Windies, as well as building a competitive squad for the future.
England of course will be without Kevin Pietersen who retired from limited overs cricket last month, and there are further areas of concern for England to resolve as they look to build a side capable of challenging at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Below we've outlined the key areas England have to get right to improve in One Day cricket, who we'd pick and the reasons why. Let us know what you think:
Opening Pair:
Alistair Cook is the captain of the One Day side and is possibly the only nailed-down selection in the whole side at the moment. His opening partner - following KP's retirement - could feasibly be anyone now, with Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara and Craig Kieswetter all mentioned in recent weeks.
At present the England selectors believe Bell is the man to partner Cook in the future to the extent that the Warwickshire batsman is scheduled to open up with his skipper at the Ageas Bowl on Saturday.
Here at The Golden Duck however, we feel Kieswetter is the best option to open with Cook. Kieswetter can be explosive with the bat and will get England off to a flier with Cook's more cautious approach suring things up at the other end.
Kieswetter has opened in the past and perhaps people feel he has burned out his chances, but we believe that he can be the perfect foil for his captain and just needs to be given the chance to cement his place at the top of the order.
Trott's Fault?
In the past, a lot of England's failings in One Day cricket have been attributed to the inclusion of Jonathan Trott in the side, on account of his overly cautious approach to this form of the game. The argument is that at number three you need someone to accelerate the teams scoring, not slow it down.
However, with an average of 48 scored at a strike rate of 77 in One Day cricket, Trott is hardly a stick-in-the-mud in this form. Not only that, but Trott is also more than happy to 'Dig In' if and when the situation requires, which when talking about England in this format, is more often than not.
It is our view therefore that Trott is a must for England's One Day side, because if the openers fall quickly it is imperative you have someone capable of re-building the innings, something Trott has proven he is more than capable of doing.
Middle Order
Ian Bell has been recalled to England's One Day squad ahead of this series against the West Indies and is due to open with Alistair Cook at the Ageas Bowl on Saturday. Bell however suffered a suspected fractured jaw in nets on Friday which threatened to rule him out of the series opener in Southampton.
As mentioned above, we believe Bell is better suited to a place in the middle order rather than opening up England's batting but hey, what do we know?!
Like Trott, Bell's record is hardly shabby in this format and with over 100 caps to his name it is perhaps more reflective of England's erratic selection policy in One Day cricket that they needed to "recall" the Warwickshire batsman, as opposed to any failings on Bell's part.
Eoin Morgan and Jonny Bairstow are also in the squad and both will surely complete the make up of England's middle order with Morgan probably now considered England's match winner following KP's retirement. England will hope that Bairstow can develop into another following an encouraging start to his international career.
It is perhaps worth also considering some of the names not considered for this squad, with the likes of James Taylor and Jos Buttler pushing hard for places in the side. Both will surely be tried and tested in the build up to the 2015 World Cup, but unfortunately for them miss out against the West Indies.
All Rounders
Tricky. England have tried a few candidates in this crucial position with varying degrees of success over the years since Freddie Flintoff retired, and have Ravi Bopara and Samit Patel in the squad for this series.
Bopara has the ability to be immense but has never quite realised his potential for England, whilst Patel is a strong, fast scoring batsman whose spin bowling is somewhat underrated.
The Golden Duck's nod goes to Patel for this series, but both men are still in with a shout of cementing this important place in the side for themselves.
Bowlers
England are fortunate that they have a few bowling options that can more than hold their own with a bat too, making them strong assets to the side. Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and Graham Swann can all wield an axe to good effect and also happen to be world class bowlers to boot.
It's obviously massively desirable to have batting as low down the order as possible in limited overs cricket in particular and so these three you would assume would be in pole position for selection, but then there's England's best bowler Jimmy Anderson to slot into the line-up as well, somehow.
Then there's also the likes of Steven Finn, who bowled superbly in the One Day series in the sub-continent last winter, as well as Jade Dermbach, a One Day regular in recent series for England, as well as Chris Woakes - absent from this squad - who can bat as well as bowl too, that are all potentials for England's first choice XI.
The Golden Duck has mulled over the bowling attack for many hours, sinking a few too many glasses of Merlot in the process, but at the end of our deliberations we feel the final four places in the side should go to Stuart Broad (T20 captain lest we forget) and Graham Swann - both of whom can bat a bit, with Jimmy Anderson and Steven Finn completing the line-up.
Anderson, despite some mixed One Day performances over the last twelve months is still a superb bowler who is in the form of his life right now whilst Finn, despite being an archetypal number 11 batsman if ever you saw one, is a superb One Day quick bowler who has the pace to trouble any batsman in his world on his day, and in three years time it will very much be his time.
So to confirm, our starting line-up for the Ageas Bowl is:-
Cook (c)
Kieswetter (wk)
Trott
Bell
Morgan
Bairstow
Patel
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Finn
There's some names that are close to getting in, Dernbach for example has been a bit of a favourite with the selectors over the past twelve months and the likes of James Taylor and Jos Buttler are the future and will surely come into the reckoning before long, but for us this is England's strongest line up ahead of the West Indies on Saturday with the players selected in this squad.
Good luck to both sides, we hope it's a cracking series and the rain does one for the rest of the summer!
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