England betray their muddled thinking

England's Test team continues to go from strength to strength, but on today's evidence, the thinking behind the one-day squad remains as muddled as ever. Judging by the 14 men that were named this morning, the England & Wales Cricket Board still cannot decide whether to use one-day cricket as a training ground for the Test arena, or whether to treat it as a valid international competition in its own right.

This winter's one-day schedule was a write-off for a variety of reasons - Bangladesh were misleadingly weak, while the series in Sri Lanka and the West Indies were wrecked by the weather. But that is hardly an excuse for the piecemeal alterations that have been made to the squad this morning.

The most notable omission is that of the wicketkeeper, Chris Read, who was one of the few performers to make his mark amid the Caribbean puddles. After the wave of public sympathy that followed his axing from the Test team, Read demonstrated his chutzpah with a vital 27 from 15 balls to transform the first one-day international at Georgetown. He followed up at Bridgetown with one of the catches of the winter, a fingertip effort to his left to cut off Brian Lara's deliberate steer to third man, and at moments like that, the benefits of having a top-class gloveman in your one-day side were plain to see.

There is no doubt that Geraint Jones merits inclusion on his batting prowess alone, but one of the features of England's selection in recent years has been continuity. It is hardly consistent thinking to drop Read and Rikki Clarke, and yet retain the likes of Ian Blackwell, who was anonymous all winter, and Anthony McGrath, who should probably never have been selected in the first place. And how does it help England's cause to do away with the man most likely to step up, should Jones be struck down by injury? Read is both an asset to the one-day side, and an understudy for the Tests, and he should have been retained as such.

Robert Key's selection further muddies the waters. Key is without doubt a Test cricketer in the making, a nuggetty performer with the twin attributes of grit and flair, who survived a baptism of fire on the last Ashes tour in 2002-03. And yet no-one has ever seriously considered him to be a one-day performer. Not to put too fine a point on it, he is the wrong shape. As the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack put it, a robust, hard-handed opener should not be asked to pick out the gaps in the middle-order.

Key, it seems, is being asked to take the Andrew Strauss route to Test cricket, which is all very well, but it is as beneficial to England's one-day aims as the continued presence of Darren Gough in the side. His performances against West Indies suggested that the end of the road had been reached, and yet here he is again for another summer. That is hardly progressive thinking, although the inclusion of Sajid Mahmood is at least a timely nod to the future of English fast bowling.

Ultimately, it is a squad that betrays the lack of progress made this winter. England need to decide whether they are building for world domination in 2007, or using one-day cricket as a staging post for their former and future Test heroes.