ANY fear that England’s players might peak too early for the main event has been comprehensively removed by their performances in the first five weeks of the season. When the selection committee — David Graveney, Duncan Fletcher, Rod Marsh and Geoff Miller — meet today to pick their team for the first npower Test match against Bangladesh, starting at Lord’s on Thursday week, they will have a list of injuries that is by no means unprecedented but a set of batting averages that probably is.

Of the batsmen who started England’s last Test series, in South Africa, Mark Butcher has not yet been able to play and may not do so until next month despite some genuine signs of recovery in the past few days from the operation on his left wrist. The best that can be said of the other six — Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff and Geraint Jones — is that five of them are fit. Their collective form has been poor enough to make an A-level question in psychology.

All the centrally-contracted men would say that they view themselves now as England players, not as representatives of Surrey, Yorkshire, Kent, etc. However, if that is so, it invites the question why their pride in flying the England flag for their counties is not sufficient motivation for them to perform better than they have. An ironic cheer might have gone up somewhere when Strauss became the first of the seven to reach a hundred runs for the season in his seventh innings.

If nothing else, it proves the utter nonsense sometimes purveyed by detractors of the county game that it is “uncompetitive”. As other recent events have shown, there are times when it is a mite too competitive, but that is the nature of modern sport.

If the series against Australia were about to start, this would be cause for serious concern. With due respect to the Bangladesh players, however, there is ample time and there should also be ample opportunity for the key batsmen to go to the second Lord’s Test of the summer on July 21 in good form. The question is, which men? To some extent that will be answered by the fitness report from England’s medical officer on Thorpe’s back, not to mention those on Simon Jones, who has also been suffering back pain, and Ashley Giles, whose right hip stiffened up at Hove this week after his outstanding bowling in the first month. The prognosis for both Jones and Giles seemed better yesterday, but the fact that the squad will be announced on Sunday, 11 days before the game begins, leaves room for manoeuvre.

In the absence of Butcher, there is no doubt that Ian Bell will be in the XI next week, either at No 3 or No 5. It is not just that he has made a double hundred and produced substantial innings in three of his four championship games. It is also the compactness of his technique, the soundness of his temperament and the fact that he took his chance with an innings of 70 in his only Test, England’s last on home soil.

Robert Key should play too if Thorpe is not going to be fit. His virtues are as well-known by now as his technical vices, namely occasional closing of the blade and a tendency to get overexcited when going well, but Kevin Pietersen needed to do more than he has to force his way in front. This will certainly be one bone of contention today. Excited, as everyone was, by his brilliant batting in the one-day internationals, Fletcher might argue that his form on a variety of pitches this season should be ignored and that there is good reason to introduce him to Test cricket.

The coach has already won his argument on the wicketkeeper/batsman, supported by Vaughan. Geraint Jones will continue to be preferred to Chris Read. His hardest task will be to keep his mind on the job, not on those who think he should not be doing it. If a deputy is needed for Giles it will again be Gareth Batty, but the bowling attack is relatively stable. The one uncapped player will be Jon Lewis, standing by for Simon Jones.

ENGLAND (from): A J Strauss, M E Trescothick, I R Bell, M P Vaughan (captain), G P Thorpe, A Flintoff, G O Jones, A F Giles, M J Hoggard, S J Harmison, R W T Key, K P Pietersen, J Lewis, G Batty.

ON THE RUN

Michael Vaughan (batting average this season, 10.5): 9 v Leicestershire
Marcus Trescothick (av 16): did not play
Andrew Strauss (av 14.75): 10 v Gloucestershire
Kevin Pietersen (av 18): did not bat v Kent
Ian Bell (av 57.3): 35 v Sussex
Robert Key (av 36.8): did not bat v Hampshire
Andrew Flintoff (av 28.4): 42 v Durham
Geraint Jones (av 15.8): 6 v Hampshire