IT IS the objective of all teams to be in a position to make seamless changes, keeping the ball rolling without so much as a blink when a senior player disappears. Nasser Hussain having done so for the best possible reasons, the transition will be much simpler now than it was when he abdicated as captain last year, but there is still a fundamental decision to be made about Michael Vaughan when he returns, as he is expected to do, at Headingley on Thursday to lead England in the second Test against New Zealand.

The selectors are meeting at Lord’s today before naming what will almost certainly be 12 of the 13 players that they chose for the first match, substituting only the name Strauss for Hussain.

I have felt for some time that Vaughan’s ideal position is at No 4, giving him time to think about his batting on the occasions when he has had a long grilling in the field. It would also give him opportunities to play his attacking strokes with equal freedom less hazardously against a ball lacking its initial shine. He has got used to opening and it would be no easy transition, of course. The same playing-in period will be needed wherever he bats and sometimes there are advantages to going in first and picking up relatively easy runs before bowlers find their mark.

Vaughan’s priority, however, will be what is best for the side. There is a case, certainly, for Marcus Trescothick to be the man dropping down the order, there to prepare himself for dealing next year with Shane Warne, for whom left-handers present at least a marginally greater obstacle. Trescothick’s footwork, more heavyweight pugilist’s than ballroom dancer’s, has restricted his success and Warne’s opinion that he should have been the man to give way had Hussain stayed was either Machiavellian or an interesting insight into the Australia team’s relatively low opinion of the pride of Somerset.

Given that he averages 41 from 48 Tests against allcomers, but only 29 from ten against Australia, the lack of respect is understandable. Trescothick no doubt feels he has time for revenge but with Robert Key, Mark Chilton, Ian Ward, Scott Newman, Will Jefferson and Mark Wagh pressing, not to mention middle-order candidates, all the established batsmen know that there is no divine right to continue in the team. But if an opening partnership of 190 with Strauss in their first appearance together in a Test is not an auspicious start, heaven knows what is.

Providence seems to have guided the hands of the selectors, dictating, through the chain of events that started with Vaughan’s knee locking in the nets a fortnight ago, that the time has come for him to move to four, there to become the classical pivot of the side. New Zealand’s bowlers will be glad that there is no place for Key and if there are heated words at today’s meeting (Duncan Fletcher and Rodney Marsh do not always see eye to eye) they could be over whether Key’s commanding form should give him preference as the reserve batsman over the patient Paul Collingwood, who has done nothing wrong.

Durham, Collingwood’s county, do not have a championship match next week, Kent do. Let Key continue to pour out runs in a demanding match against Lancashire at Tunbridge Wells. His opportunity will open up somehow, for sure. For the moment it is a question only of which two of Ashley Giles, James Anderson and Collingwood to omit. Since the Headingley pitch has behaved itself in sunshine so far this year, the forecast will decide, no doubt.

PROBABLE XIII: M E Trescothick, A J Strauss, M A Butcher, M P Vaughan (captain), G P Thorpe, A Flintoff, G O Jones, A F Giles, S P Jones, M J Hoggard, S J Harmison, P D Collingwood, J M Anderson.