England / Michael Vaughan / 08 February 2011 /

Michael Vaughan talks us through the importance of being Jonathan Trott...

England blew a fantastic opportunity to get their second win of the ODI Series during the week and on Sunday morning they have one last chance to beat the Aussies. After that, they fly back home and have a grand total of three days in the UK before flying out for the start of the World Cup.

Yes, you read that right, three days. Is it any wonder that England have never won the World Cup when more often than not they have to take on the world's best on the back of a long Ashes tour? I know our lads in the army are sometimes away for four month spells - and I have the greatest of respect for them - but sport is a little different. Duncan Fletcher complained about how little recovery time we had in between the 2002-3 and the 2006-7 Ashes Tours and the World Cups but no-one listened. Or at least if they did, they didn't do anything about it. Andy Flower has spoken out once again and I sincerely hope that this time people listen to him for the good of English cricket.

Long tour or otherwise, Jonathan Trott has been England's outstanding player in these ODIs and whereas he may have been a doubt to feature in the World Cup during the summer, he's just about the first name on the teamsheet at present. He obviously loves batting up the order and he loves making big scores, match-winning contributions. If there was one small criticism I'd aim at him it would be that perhaps he doesn't score off enough balls. In other words, he's happy to play out a lot of dot balls early on in the innings because he's confident he can improve his strike rate once he's played himself in. Of course the problem with that is you run the risk of scoring slowly to start with and then getting out before you have a chance to make amends. But hey, Trott is still relatively new to ODI cricket and that's an area of his game I'm sure he's working on.

For what it's worth, I think this England team tick most of the boxes when it comes to being a very well-balanced 50 over side. Again, if I was to make one criticism of it it's that the two openers probably don't score enough big hundreds. But then again, not every side has the luxury of opening with Ghambir/Sehwag or Watson/Haddin! Well, that and the fact that with just two weeks to go I'm not sure anyone knows just who our best eleven is, the exact same problem we had back in 2007. Should Matt Prior open or should it be Ian Bell? Can we fit Trott, Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan into the same side? Where does Michael Yardy figure in the team? Or maybe he doesn't?

The best sides are often the most settled sides and right now, England can't de described as such.

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