By Paresh Soni

Flintoff and his team have been repeatedly hammered in Australia

England's nine-wicket defeat by Australia in Adelaide was another chastening limited overs experience for Andrew Flintoff and co.

They have won only nine of their last 34 games in the 50-over format and with the World Cup less than two months away, supporters fear the worst for their prospects in the Caribbean.

So what exactly is wrong with the one-day team?

BBC Sport spoke to Gloucestershire coach Mark Alleyne, who skippered them to seven trophies in five years from 1999-2004 and also won 10 caps for England.

606 DEBATE: What do you think England should do?

Previously it was the bowling that was worrying - and it's still a bit of a concern - but now it's the batting failings that have come to the fore.

Generally, we aren't far off with the batting line-up: the middle-order, when everyone's fit, is as strong as we'll ever be. I like the combination of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff with Paul Collingwood sandwiched in between the two.

But I am concerned that we are one-dimensional at the top of the order, in terms of the personalities and how we play. It appears we can never get ahead of the game and stay in front.

Marcus Trescothick has been missed.

Opener Trescothick often gets England off to flying starts

His record was good, he had the ability to get hundreds in one-day games, which not a lot of people do on a regular basis.

He scores at a really good rate and hits the ball in areas that others don't.

I'm just a little bit worried that early on we hit the ball a bit square of the wicket too often and are not exploiting the whole ground.

Our starts haven't been great, and we can't exploit powerplay situations when we're losing early wickets.

One-day cricket is not about tricks - it's not a smarter version of the game. Maybe we have been complicating things too much and have been trying to be too cute.

People talk about having one-day specialists in the team and bowlers who give away nothing.

But in Test cricket the guys who have been consistently at the top of the rankings have been very economical and consistent.

They are the same guys who do very well in one-day cricket and just because you're quick and pacy doesn't give you an excuse to give away runs willy nilly.

We need to sharpen up with that.

Dalrymple bats much higher up for his county Middlesex

Jamie Dalrymple is a shrewd addition to the squad but he's been batting too low in the team.

There is a lot of talk about "finishers" and aggressive batsmen down the order - and I've seen him play that role very effectively.

Maybe he hasn't done it that well yet for England but he can be very explosive.

I think eight is too low, six or seven was where he did well last summer in England.

I'm not sure why he's drifted so low down the order.

At the moment critics say England rely too much on Flintoff and Pietersen to play big innings and score quickly.

By their own admission, they are just two of 11 people in the side and in one-day cricket in particular there is an emphasis on contributions from the whole group.

You will not win games relying on one or two people - the game is designed to restrict total domination by one-player so all contributions are crucial.

The top four or five need to get some runs on the board and that will build confidence.

That will help them become more adventurous and take us past a par score.

At the moment, unless we get an above-par score I can't see us winning because we're bowling not consistently enough.

Our one-day form has been poor for a long time and the performances in Australia have highlighted that even further.

That said, this is the longest run of one-day games we've had for a while and it will help us focus our minds for the World Cup and help build up rhythm going into it.

But we need to start winning quickly so we can arrive in the Caribbean with a bit of confidence.