It is a measure of England’s progress under Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower that the 13 names revealed for the first Test yesterday contained no surprises. Before England departed for the Caribbean earlier in the year, after the convulsions that caused the bitter departure of Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores as captain and head coach respectively, the consensus was that such instability six months before the Ashes was disastrous.

In fact, it was necessary. England had backed the wrong captain and the wrong coach — to complete a miserable year for those making decisions on behalf of English cricket — better, therefore, to get rid of the weeds before the garden became unmanageable.

Since then a mixture of common sense and tough love has resulted in a situation where ten of the team pick themselves on merit and recent record, rather than reputation or promise.

The selectors had only two decisions to make during a week in which they split their time and energies between Edgbaston, Worcester and Cardiff, to which Geoff Miller made periodic visits to watch the development of a pitch that has had an unhealthy amount of speculation over its likely properties. It will be 22 yards, like any other, and, as is always the case, the better team will come out on top.

Two decisions, then, which concerned the identity of the fourth seam bowler and the second spinner. In both cases, the selectors made the right call, sticking with, in Graham Onions, the man in possession and, with Monty Panesar, the tried and tested. Whoever gets the final nod will depend entirely on conditions, with Ian Bell a non-starter unless food poisoning or swine flu strikes.

Stephen Harmison made a late push for inclusion with two outstanding new-ball spells during the Lions’ match at Worcester, where he made Phillip Hughes look not so much genius as novice and the temptation to include him must have been strong.

But Harmison, 30, looked weary as the game progressed (mind you, a few others did, too) and his days of playing consecutive Test matches are at an end. It is a case now, with Harmison, of using and discarding wherever necessary (and, please, no central contract whatever happens over the next two months) and whenever conditions dictate. Given that Cardiff is likely to be slow, better to keep him for Lord’s, if fresh impetus is needed then.

Ryan Sidebottom remains in the queue, but has not done enough yet since his return to full fitness. Besides, Onions has done nothing wrong. He was outstanding in the early-season Test matches, before the World Twenty20 banished those to the back of our minds, and remains the country’s leading wicket-taker and most prolific taker of five-wicket hauls.

From close to the stumps, he will bowl well at Australia’s phalanx of left-handers and at 26, is younger, fitter and hungrier than Harmison. If Hughes needs his ribcage tickling, then in any case Andrew Flintoff is quicker and more accurate than Harmison.

Seasonal statistics suggest the talk of Cardiff being a spinner’s paradise has been overplayed, but if England do pick two spinners, it will be because they expect them to be impact bowlers. Adil Rashid’s all-round capabilities, therefore, are a red herring.

He can bat and field better than Panesar, but at the moment he cannot bowl as well. Strauss needed to ask himself one simple question when comparing the merits of the two: come the fifth day, with Australia needing 250 to win and the ball turning, who would he have more faith in as a bowler? Panesar is that man.

And what of the Australians? In the absence of Shane Watson, who seems to have the perfect body for the beach but not the cricket pitch, they have one decision to make. Should they play Nathan Hauritz? The off spinner found some turn on the final day at Worcester, but that might have come too late for his chances. In all but the dustiest conditions, they can be expected to play four seam bowlers, with reverse swing from Brett Lee and Stuart Clark’s metronomic accuracy providing the cutting edge and pressure that came from the old ball in one man’s hands previously.