 Vaughan and Jones have been two of the long-term absentees |
Geoff Boycott says England have little chance of doing well at the Champions Trophy, or one-day cricket in general, until their best players are available. Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Ashley Giles and Simon Jones are all missing the tournament in India.
"We don't have the quality reserves to shore up the better players being injured," Boycott told BBC Sport.
"The reserves do the best they can but it does lessen the team's quality when you have too many fill-in players."
England reached the Champions Trophy final when they hosted the event in 2004 but since then have won only 16 of their 43 one-day games.
This summer they were thrashed 5-0 by Sri Lanka before coming from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Pakistan.
 | We don't know if England are a poor one-day side or quite a good one when all the players are fit |
During that time new faces like Jamie Dalrymple and Michael Yardy have been brought in to cover the absence of key players but Boycott believes they are not long-term answers.
"There is some exasperation for the hierarchy that they can never get the right people on the field.
"We're without so many good cricketers and people are being moved around to fill gaps. We don't know if England are a poor one-day side or quite a good one when all the players are fit.
"If we've got everybody fit, particularly Vaughan for his captaincy, we might be a lot better and be able to surprise ourselves that we're quite a decent one-day side, " the former England batsman said.
England are in the same Champions Trophy group as world champions Australia and hosts India and Boycott fears an early exit.
 Steve Harmison needs to find consistent form with the ball |
"They're in poor shape. Their one-day performances fluctuate from pretty poor to ordinary and then occasionally they surprise you with a good performance.
"Quite frankly, I'd be surprised if England do well here."
Boycott believes, however, that moving skipper Andrew Flintoff up to open the batting or go in at number three could pay off.
"I don't have a problem with that because there's only two people out on the boundary, it's usually third man and fine leg, and he's a four-ball hitter anyhow.
"I think people have to play their natural game. It is his natural game to play shots. When he times the ball, it goes twice as quick as when someone like me times it because he's a big lad and it's difficult for the in-fielders to stop it.
"It's important to have a natural way of playing, then you're not looking to hit balls that aren't there to hit. That's how you get out," he said.
Leading England's pace attack in India will be Steve Harmison, who was erratic in one-dayers against Sri Lanka and Pakistan this summer.
Boycott is concerned about his lack of control in the shorter form of the game.
"He seems a smashing lad but I don't know where all that talent goes. He bowls a bit like Newcastle, the team he follows, play football.
"I don't think their great supporters know from one week to the next what they're going to get," he added.
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Interview: England legend Geoffrey Boycott