After the elation, the reality. The England selectors will name their squad for Lord's today and they must blank out, if possible, the emotions of Cardiff as they sit down to work out how their team came so close to defeat, having won a good toss in conditions designed to suit. The players can celebrate, albeit not too much; the selectors must be clear-headed.

Conditions will be different at Lord's for the start of the second npower Test on Thursday, with the pitch firmer and less prone to dust. It is unlikely, then, that two spinners will be required, even though Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann will be retained in the squad, just in case.

Clearly, Graham Onions should play, given that he will bowl well at the Australia left-handers and, as a line bowler, utilise the slope at Lord's to his advantage. Onions for Panesar should be the only change.

There should be no alteration to the batting line-up, even though so many batsmen got themselves in and got themselves out. Ultimately, England scored more than 400 at a decent lick and a captain should be confident when that happens that he will, with a good bowling attack, win more matches than he loses.

What is needed is a change of approach from the profligate batsmen and from Stuart Broad, who was England's most disappointing bowler. He needs to think less about variations and more about the pressure that can be exerted through consistency. Slack cricket of the type England played for most of the game will not be good enough to beat this deeply committed Australia team.

Andrew Strauss also has some thinking to do. He had a poor match as a batsman and was out-captained by Ricky Ponting. The England selectors need to show faith, but the team must take a more hard-nosed approach and Strauss needs to discover his inner Mike Brearley.