England set for another shuffle

In the past, England have been accused of not really taking one-day cricket seriously. Whether by using it as a nursery for Test players or resting them once they have made it to five-day cricket big school, it has been possible to discern an air of indifference about the 50-over format.

Some of their selections during the series in Sri Lanka have looked suspiciously whimsical but at least this time the underlying strategy cannot be questioned. The ECB has made winning a global 50-overs tournament one of its goals, to the extent of shifting an Ashes series by a year, and while England's World Cup planning is currently running on Sri Lanka time (a little way behind schedule) you can see what they're driving at.

England have long given up the selection roulette which defined the 1980s and '90s, particularly in Tests, and set great store in keeping faith with players who are out of form. Some might say that has occasionally crossed into blind faith, with Alastair Cook's ODI form a salient example, but the management have shown a willingness to experiment during the Sri Lanka series that seems to reflect their outwardly stated intention to be more proactive and aggressive.

With the promotion of Moeen Ali to open, they struck paydirt in the opening match and they have been fiddling away ever since. Ravi Bopara has moved up two places from No. 7; Ian Bell has been dropped, first for Alex Hales - an opener brought in at No. 3 - and then James Taylor; Hales has had a chance to partner Moeen; Chris Jordan has made an impressive return based on his nets form; Ben Stokes was twice preferred to James Tredwell, possibly with deleterious effects.

Some of those changes have been enforced and there will be more in Pallekele, where the fifth and sixth ODIs are to be played. Cook will return as captain after being suspended for England's slow over rate in Hambantota, most probably for Hales, whose contributions in two matches include running out Moeen, being dismissed first ball and dropping a potentially match-turning catch. Stokes may survive another day if conditions are favourable to pace.

Tredwell's omission in Colombo at the weekend, on a pitch where the Sri Lanka spinners took nine wickets, caused most surprise but it highlighted the tension between doing well in this series and informing World Cup decision-making. If England want jam tomorrow, they may have to forgo it today.

Despite being 3-1 down with three to play, they can, of course, still win here and the mantra has been that victory over Sri Lanka would be the best possible preparation. Whoever makes up the XI on Wednesday, the process is underpinned by sound principles, according to Joe Root, one of the mainstays of the side.

"Your best eleven is going to change depending on the conditions and who you're playing against," Root said. "We've got to make sure in our practice, if you are in that best eleven, you do everything you can to go out and play at your absolute peak. All the guys know that, they know what their role is within the side when they fit into it. We've now got to make sure we put all our practice into performances."

In more than 40 years of ODI cricket, England have used more players (236) than any other major nation - and that having played fewer games than everyone barring South Africa, who were in isolation during the first half of the era. That again points to England treating the format like a bagatelle but, having committed to an intensive period of one-dayers before the World Cup, they cannot this time be accused of neglect.

Whether it turns out to be the "best chance" Cook spoke of before departing for Sri Lanka could occupy several hours of debate, perhaps while seated in a Kandy tea house, with an expansive mountain view and the Mahaweli Ganga gurgling by. Before they get there, they need to work out their ideal XI; before they do that, they need to settle on a squad of 15; and before making that decision, they must play three more games against Sri Lanka. Root has not given up hope they can win them.

"There's no reason why we can't," he said. "We showed in every game at some point along the way that we're capable of doing that, the thing for us now is to make sure that we put it into one complete performance. Even the game that we did win, we didn't play at our absolute best, which again is promising. You don't want to talk about being promising all the time, now's the time for us to step up and start putting in performances. This is a great opportunity for us to do it under pressure before a World Cup.

"We want to win this series. We know, looking at the wicket here, the conditions might be slightly different to Colombo and if we can get level going back into that last game it's going to be a great finish. This sort of pressure is good practice for a World Cup, so in regards to preparing for it that's as close as we can get. We're just going to try and make sure we put in two really good performances here and finish the series well."

Root has brought his ukulele with him on tour, although he said he still sounds "horrendous". England are trying to convince everyone they are not playing the same old tunes themselves.