Any Australian trepidation about the threat from these two fearless young all-rounders - only Adam is sure to play - will be eased by the decision to replace a left-handed opening batsman, who has troubled them, with a right-hander, whose average in 17 Ashes Tests is 25 and falling.

Mark Butcher is dropped to allow the elder Hollioake to win his first Test cap at No 6, with Alec Stewart to open, John Crawley moving to three and Ben Hollioake named in place of Mark Ealham at seven. Below them, whichever bowling options are taken amount to nothing more than a reshuffling of cards which are either flimsy or yellowing at the edges. Devon Malcolm returns to the 13 with Phil Tufnell, who has never been out of it but still has not played for England this summer, and Andrew Caddick returns, breathing indignant fire, in place of the unfortunate Mike Smith.

Caddick is bound to be in the XI this time, having proved a point, both by his five wickets against the Australians at Taunton this weekend and the consequences of his omission at Headingley, where Smith, without luck and not disgracing himself, did not take a wicket. Malcolm and Tufnell have taken their Test wickets against Australia at a cost of 49 and 46 runs respectively and a typical Trent Bridge pitch is certainly not the place that either of them would choose to try to improve on their record.

Admittedly the records of Caddick and Robert Croft are marginally worse and the fact that neither Ashley Cowan nor Alex Tudor is fully fit at the moment ruled out any bolder solutions. It is the lack of quality bowling which continues to be at the heart of England's problem.

One understands why David Graveney, Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting, having consulted Mike Atherton and David Lloyd, wanted to have the option either of Malcolm's extra speed or of playing both spinners, but unless the younger Hollioake plays, the tail will start at seven. Therefore he should play, gamble though it clearly is for a 19-year-old who has never sniffed a first-class hundred nor looked like bowling a side out.

Ealham, like Smith and Butcher, has been assured by Graveney that he is ``still part of the set-up''. The Kent all-rounder was obviously the more conservative choice. He made a good fifty at Edgbaston, has batted for longer than most of the others since the turn of the tide and has bowled usefully despite an apparent lack of faith on the part of his captain.

But this is a desperate situation; a match which has to be won if the chance of regaining the Ashes is to remain, and Ben Hollioake for Ealham is therefore understandable given the remarkable flair with which he has batted on the two biggest occasions of the season at Lord's.

If he plays the choice for the last place would be between Malcolm, Tufnell and Dean Headley, and he would be the youngest England Test cap since Brian Close was picked at the age of 18 in 1949. Close did the double of 100 wickets and 1,000 runs that year, but one-day cricket has changed everything so it is more interesting than fair to point out that Hollioake has been picked despite first-class figures in this, his first full season, of 422 runs at 32.63 and 21 wickets at 34.09.

It is the decision to drop Mark Butcher which is seriously flawed. Even at Edgbaston, where he failed, he messed up Glenn McGrath's line. At Lord's he helped to save the game with his 87, and in the two defeats which followed his batting was convincing: his first-innings dismissals for 51 at Old Trafford and 24 at Headingley were both slightly freakish and he deserved the chance to capitalise on what will probably be a more comfortable pitch at Nottingham. McGrath, Paul Reiffel and Jason Gillespie will much prefer to bowl at Stewart, whose top score, other than the heady race to 40 not out and victory at Birmingham, is 30.

Mark Ramprakash was considered, but it would have been wrong to drop Graham Thorpe. The argument for seven specialist batsmen, including Stewart, was rejected because ``we have to take 20 wickets''. Yes, but what if there are insufficient runs? Stewart averages 15 after eight innings at No 3.

It may be a travesty for a player of such abundant talent but it is asking for a small miracle to imagine he and Atherton repeating last year's stand of 130 against India at Trent Bridge. Miracles do sometimes occur in cricket, however, so I hope the selectors went to church yesterday.

The Squad

ENGLAND 13

 M A Atherton * (Lancs)
 A J Stewart - (Surrey)
 J P Crawley (Lancashire)
 N Hussain (Essex)
 G P Thorpe (Surrey)
 A J Hollioake (Surrey)
 B C Hollioake (Surrey)
 R D B Croft (Glamorgan)
 A R Caddick (Somerset)
 D Gough (Yorkshire)
 D W Headley (Kent)
 D E Malcolm (Derbyshire)
 P C R Tufnell (Middlesex)