One shocking performance, a media frenzy, much romantic speculation and five hours of deliberations at Trent Bridge have produced only one casualty. Ravi Bopara, who began the series aiming to make history as the first England batsman to score four consecutive Test hundreds, ends it consigned to history for the second time in his short international career.

Well, not exactly history, since Geoff Miller, the national selector, emphasised that Bopara remains on the selectors’ radar for the near term. But there is no hiding the fact that he has failed the test for the second time since he made his debut in Sri Lanka in December 2007.

His career graph so far is that of a cardiac-arrest victim being given the electric shock treatment, so extreme have been his peaks and troughs, and a late half-century for Essex in their LV County Championship match against Middlesex came too late to earn him a further reprieve.

The Essex man is so highly regarded by Andy Flower, the England team director, that his demotion can only be a sign that Flower, who has seen him at close quarters for a number of years, believes Bopara to be mentally shot, his half-hearted first-innings dismissal at Headingley Carnegie the latest sign. If so, then the selectors have taken a humane decision.

But what should be resisted now is Bopara’s rapid return in the winter. The England team should be hard to get in to, hard to get out of, and then, when dropped, doubly hard to get back into. If being axed carries no penalty for the likes of Bopara and Ian Bell, then players like Owais Shah could justifiably complain of favouritism. Bopara has been found wanting. He needs time now to toughen up.

Jonathan Trott, then, will make his debut at the Brit Oval in the biggest Test to be played in England since the Ashes were won for the first time in nearly 19 years in 2005. Preferred over Rob Key, but not Mark Ramprakash who was never in contention, this is a remarkable show of faith from the selectors in a man who has played only a couple of Twenty20 internationals so far and whose temperament for the big occasion is completely untested. It also smacks of poor planning.

Trott’s timely hundred for Warwickshire last week bolstered his claims, although once the selectors had picked him for Headingley they would have felt duty bound to stick with him — a lesson perhaps that decisions should always be taken with half an eye on the future. Still, he is in cracking form for his county and carries a self-confidence characteristic of players born, raised and produced in South Africa. He is likely to bat at No 4, although surely Paul Collingwood (why no county cricket for him this week, by the way?) should now take more responsibility, allowing Trott to come in at No 5.

If an Ashes series is supposed to be a battle of supremacy between the English system and the Australian system, a chance to boast that county cricket is superior to state cricket, that finger spin is superior to wrist spin, and blocking to dashing, then there should be some disquiet about Trott’s promotion. The more the selectors pick players who have learnt their cricket abroad, then the contest becomes not one of English cricket versus Australian cricket but one of immigration policies.

Bell, also in the runs for Warwickshire this week, will once again be promoted to No 3, a position he has found about as comfortable as a badly sprung mattress. His average at first drop is a tick over 30, compared with a nudge under forty overall, the numbers correlating with the feeling that he lacks the punch to thrive in that vital position. A part-Warwickshire middle order may raise questions about the impartiality of Ashley Giles’s advice, or, if they fail, about his judgment of character since he sees them at close hand every day in the Warwickshire dressing room.

There were no other surprises in the squad of 14 who will go to the Oval, let us not forget, with a chance to regain the Ashes. With all the talk about the batting post-Headingley, it had been forgotten that the bowling was just as bad. James Anderson’s hamstring twinge is not deemed bad enough to prevent his selection, but there is plenty of cover in any case with Graham Onions, Stephen Harmison and Ryan Sidebottom all in the squad.

Monty Panesar returns so that Andrew Strauss will have a balanced attack at his disposal should conditions dictate. The focus, though, will be on another player who missed out at Headingley and returns now. The bulletins on Andrew Flintoff’s knee are positive enough that the selectors felt no need to include an extra batsman. Flintoff will play, then, despite the disquiet felt about his camp’s post-Headingley pronouncements. Top-class players often bang on about their scriptwriters, and the all-rounder is no exception: the perfect ending is ready to be penned.

The Cape crusader

• Ian Jonathan Leonard Trott, born April 22, 1981, in Cape Town.

• Went to Stellenbosch University and played under-19 cricket for South Africa alongside Graeme Smith and Jacques Rudolph.

• Has a British passport through his father and came on a trial to Warwickshire in 2002. Made 245 on his second XI debut and 134 on his County Championship debut. Qualified for England at the end of 2006 season.

• Played two Twenty20 internationals for England v West Indies in 2007, making nine and two.

• Is having the best county season of his career, with four first-class hundreds and an average of 80. One of only four England-qualified batsmen to reach 1,000 first-class runs this season, although he is behind Marcus Trescothick, Mark Ramprakash and Michael Carberry in the table.

• Is distantly related to Albert Trott, the 19th-century England and Australia Test cricketer, who is the only man to hit a ball over the pavilion at Lord's.

- Words by Patrick Kidd