Instead, they dropped valuable World Test Championship points by failing to repeat their series victory of six years ago, a result which sees them drop to fourth in the table.

But it was only two weeks ago that England comprehensively outplayed New Zealand in Christchurch, Nathan Astle's whirlwind double-century notwithstanding.

And last week they showed considerable courage to even compete, let alone dictate terms, in Wellington after the news, during the third morning's play, of Ben Hollioake's death in a car crash.

It should also not be forgotten that in India they surpassed all expectations - including, if the players are honest with themselves, their own - by dominating the last two Tests, despite losing the first.

With Matthew Hoggard again looking every inch a Test match opening bowler, and Andrew Caddick, absent from the Tests in India, finding his range with successive six-wicket hauls against New Zealand, Darren Gough is far from certain to reclaim his place this summer.

And it is to those summer opponents, Sri Lanka and India, that attention must now turn.

Though the bowling is unlikely to alter beyond Gough's challenge, and perhaps that of Durham's Steve Harmison, changes can be expected in the batting line-up.

Mark Ramprakash's inability to pass a top score of 58, despite reaching double figures in eight of his 10 Test innings, will surely herald his return to the county ranks.

And Michael Vaughan and Mark Butcher were again dismissed too often on the wrong side of 50 having more often than not bedded in, apparently in no trouble at all.

Of those waiting in the wings, Warwickshire's 19-year-old batting prodigy Ian Bell seems likely to be given a chance in the near future, quite possibly for the first Test of the summer, against Sri Lanka.