England rush to finish the jigsaw

With under a month to go, and after four years of muddle, Hussain and Fletcher at last picture their team

There is suddenly a perception abroad that England might have the makings of a reasonable one-day XI. The assumption needs two qualifications: reasonable means credible, not world-conquering, and XI means their very best XI of all, not eight plus some reserves.

So, if all their players become fit and stay fit, there is a chance that England will reach and make a fist of the VB Series finals and then acquit themselves adequately in the World Cup. In essence, this amounts to not arriving home with their heads hung in shame and their tails between their legs.

It was the arrival in Adelaide of Andrew Flintoff which first stirred the thought. A fit Freddie – and he looks every inch a fit Freddie – can change the whole balance and tenor of the team. The feeling was then given additional credence by the survival against Sri Lanka on Friday night. A young side, admittedly with a degree of good fortune, withstood the onslaught of the world's most venomous limited-overs batsman and sneaked home. Never have 19 runs seemed so few.

What they need to do now, more than they know, is to beat Australia. England have suffered 10 consecutive one-day defeats against the old enemy, which is beginning to make their Ashes results a reason for unalloyed joy. Such a run saps your energy and nerve. Ask Zimbabwe, who have lost their last 18 matches and seem to recognise when they take the field what is going to happen.

If England manage a win this week it would place a scintilla of doubt into Australian minds in time for the World Cup match between the teams. If 10 were to become 13 before then, however, the only doubts would exist over the margin of Australia's victory in South Africa.

The obvious need for Flintoff to be in the side has not persuaded the England coach, Duncan Fletcher, to rush him back. Flintoff has striven for fitness back in Lancashire after leaving the tour before Christmas, he has flown halfway round the world to be with his team-mates and he has now been told he is to play two games for the National Academy. He has been ruled out of consideration for the VB Series.

"Tongue in cheek, what if something went wrong, what would you guys say," said Fletcher when asked yesterday about the imminence of Flintoff's selection. "You fly him out, he's recovering from a serious injury, he's still acclimatising, he hasn't played cricket since August and suddenly to expect him to be ready to play in a final of a one-day series is asking a lot of someone."

Fletcher is confident that the two Academy games in Australia and two warm-up games in South Africa before the World Cup, plus plenty of time for practice, will be sufficient for his most valuable all-rounder.

His other concerns are Ashley Giles and Craig White. Giles also arrived to rejoin the squad last week after his broken wrist mended, and while he did not give cause for the same warm glow that Flintoff engendered, his value to this squad as a calm and increasingly mean bowler is still important. He will play one of the Academy matches.

There is no expectation that White will be fit before the team go to South Africa. If he and his side strain fail to come through the first warm-up match, England will seek a replacement. In which case they may regret having given Adam Hollioake so little opportunity this past month.

Stephen Harmison, who injured an ankle in Friday's match, is not as badly hurt as first feared. It is debatable whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, considering his propensity for delivering wides. In 19 overs in the last three games he has sent down 23 of them.

With justification, England still see him as the man to take wickets in the middle of the innings. With no justification, they point to his inexperience, something they could have avoided by picking him two years ago.

"It could be that he lost it in one over or two overs with the pressure of a one-day international against Australia," Fletcher said. "That affects your confidence and leads to a technical problem. He is still all right with the team – he believes he can do it and we believe he can do it. You have got to be careful how you handle him. You can't wrap them up in cotton wool. But we are talking to him and just hope he can do the job. We showed that by playing him in the last game."

Nasser Hussain, the captain, obviously shares Fletcher's view of Harmison (they are in this together, as always). But he knows the score. "I like the way our batting is coming together but I do worry about our inexperience with the ball. We often need a wicket, that's why we have persevered with Harmison. That's what we need in the middle of the innings," he said.

But with Harmison, as well as Jimmy Anderson, it is a high-risk policy. The return to wonderful form of Andrew Caddick has been essential to England's progress lately. It will be desperately needed in the World Cup.

Caddick has found a length to disturb the best players – his last 20 overs have gone for 63, which is astonishing in two high-scoring games. All he has to do is find a way of making it work against Australia. It has been some two weeks for Caddick. Four matches into the Ashes series he looked washed up.

It had been said that the winter would either complete him or finish him, and there was only way it was heading. But suddenly, he is in his prime again. Fletcher was lamenting yesterday that he could bowl only 10 overs. He has been a pleasure to watch in action. Hussain said: "He has really taken the responsibility very well." Which is not something that many commentators have been lining up to say of him in the past.

The return to the shorter game has transformed Marcus Trescothick. What did not work is suddenly working. The lack of slips is hardly a hindrance either. His opening partner, Nick Knight, has scored 440 runs in this series. The latest mantra from the top is that run-scoring at the top is simple as ABC, and it is unbelievably hard in the late middle-order.

This is only partly true, and does not allow Trescothick and Knight sufficient credit. They are a good pairing, good enough it seems to keep Michael Vaughan, the second best Test batsman in the world, at No 3.

Alec Stewart, after batting as low at eight, has now been moved up to five at his instigation. But Fletcher insisted that the batting order had to be flexible, although movable feasts tend to be messy affairs. He said it was 80 per cent certain to stay as it is.

"We seem to be always blooding youngsters at six, seven, eight and they're the hardest positions," said Fletcher. Surely, it did not have to be like that. It is four years since the last World Cup, 18 months since they first revamped the one-day side. Somehow it is all beginning to come together, though it is half-expected that Heath Robinson is one of the retinue.