Graphic: Harmison v Broad

It is a reflection of a deep and prevailing lack of confidence that the England selectors have been forced to turn to a bowler who has caused them more grief over the past two years than any other cricketer. With 212 Test wickets, Stephen Harmison is tenth on the list of all-time England wicket-takers and will rightly be regarded in time as a high-class fast bowler and a cricketer of substance. But if the historical lens was focused sharply on his efforts since the start of the 2006-07 Ashes series in Australia, the image formed would be not of a good fast bowler but of a talent gone to waste.

His selection is as uninspiring as his recent record in international cricket and his attitude and, surely, it is a return that sends a terrible message: that it does not matter if, time and again, you underperform; that it does not matter if, time and again, you do not so much cherish and nurture your talent as abuse it; and that it does not matter if, time and again, you turn up unprepared, there will always be another chance. Nor does his record against South Africa (18 wickets at 59.55) or his record at Edgbaston (five wickets at 68.20) inspire confidence.

By all accounts Harmison has been bowling quickly and consistently for Durham this year. It is hard to argue against his workrate and he has always been a better bowler when his action has been grooved on the back of constant bowling. When I saw him bowl twice at Durham this week he did so quickly enough, with that easy languid action of his, although he got a mauling in the second of those matches, as he did on Twenty20 Cup Finals Day at the weekend.

It is a puzzling selection, too, because it is difficult to see how he will make the final XI, unless Ryan Sidebottom suffers a recurrence of his back stiffness or he has suddenly leapfrogged Sidebottom, James Anderson or Andrew Flintoff in the pecking order. If England play six batsmen and four bowlers, the four bowlers are likely to be Anderson, Sidebottom, Flintoff and Monty Panesar. If they play five bowlers, revisiting the nightmare of Tim Ambrose at No6, surely Stuart Broad must play, despite the assertion on Saturday of Geoff Miller, the national selector, that Broad is tired, as a bottom six of Ambrose, Flintoff, Anderson, Sidebottom, Panesar and Harmison would look very flimsy.

Excuse the cynicism, but what Harmison's selection does is allow the selection panel to vaporise Chris Tremlett and Darren Pattinson with the minimum of fuss. It has been seen to act after an unsatisfactory performance at Headingley Carnegie and recalling one of the big names of English cricket has deflected focus from the inconsistencies at the heart of these changes. What, as a tall, quick Harmison-like bowler, has Tremlett done wrong? What, other than upset the cosy club that goes by the name of the England cricket team, has Pattinson done wrong?

Four hours of debate is a long time to come up with this squad. The selectors have not even decided on the balance of the team. Four bowlers or five? Well, apparently this decision will be taken by Peter Moores, the head coach, and Michael Vaughan, the captain, nearer the time and once the conditions have been assessed. Is it not time the selectors took a bit of responsibility and did what they are paid to do? Many more fudges of this kind and we may as well go down the football-style manager route and give the coach (or the managing director, whose role grows more puzzling by the day) absolute authority.

Paul Collingwood's inclusion was inevitable once the England captain had revealed how the selection of an outsider at Headingley affected the delicate sensitivities of the dressing-room. Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara are batsmen of considerable class and promise and Bopara bowls the same kind of fiddly medium pace as Collingwood, but they are outsiders and Collingwood's familiarity in the dressing-room is worth more than his 92 first-class runs this season at 13.

Collingwood may be short of form - although the freedom with which he has played in the past week in one-day cricket will stand him in good stead at Edgbaston - but his attitude and commitment have never been in doubt. If only the same could be said of the main beneficiary of this latest announcement.

Disappointments at Lord's and Headingley have provoked the selectors into recalling big names who come with memories of a glorious past. However, the series will not be won by looking backwards but by rediscovering the kind of diamond-hard discipline and professionalism that characterised South Africa's batting in the first two Tests. And they are hardly the characteristics that have readily sprung forth from Harmison in the recent past.

England squad v South Africa at Edgbaston, July 30 to August 3

M P Vaughan (Yorkshire, captain), T R Ambrose (Warwickshire, wicketkeeper), J M Anderson (Lancashire), I R Bell (Warwickshire), S C J Broad (Nottinghamshire), P D Collingwood (Durham), AN Cook (Essex), S J Harmison (Durham), M S Panesar (Northamptonshire), K P Pietersen (Hampshire), A Flintoff (Lancashire), R J Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), A J Strauss (Middlesex)