Trescothick should concentrate on his batting

Above Thorpe would be Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight, now established as one of best opening partnerships in limited-overs cricket.

In 10 of the 16 one-day internationals over the winter one of them scored at least a half century.

That Trescothick fell away badly in New Zealand, where he made four single figure scores in five matches, suggests that the flirtation with him keeping wicket should end immediately.

Either James Foster is to be trusted with the gloves in one-dayers as well as Tests, or he should be replaced by a regular keeper, most probably by Alec Stewart.

Bowling looks good

With less than a year to go before the start of the World Cup there is surely no more time for experimentation.

A more logical approach would be to strive for a settled middle-order, which contributed just eight fifties between them in India and New Zealand.

With the all-rounders - Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood and Jeremy Snape - blowing more cold than hot with the bat - an extra recognised batsman will almost certainly be needed.

With the ball, however, the story was very different.

Flintoff's advance is excellent news for England

Flintoff, in particular, was outstanding, playing in every match - a feat in itself given his recent injury struggles - and twice improving on his career-best figures.

Shirtless in Mumbai, where he took three for 38 as England squared the series, he was unstoppable in Auckland, returning four for 17.

Darren Gough gave a tantalising glimpse of what England are going to be without during the three-match Test series against New Zealand.

But the real find with the ball was, once again, Matthew Hoggard whose opening spells repeatedly put New Zealand on the back foot.

That, more than anything, enabled England to compete and after losing 11 one-dayers in succession to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia, that they were able to compete is all they could realistically have hoped for at the start of the campaign.