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It became clear this week what Nasser Hussain has been doing for the past three years since he returned to the England team against India at Edgbaston in 1996 and made a hundred that reshaped his international career. He has been preparing himself assiduously for the day when he would inherit the captaincy.

You could not say that this time last week. You can now. Everything he did and said at Edgbaston bore the imprimatur of a man who has waited, and waited, and finally been granted the opportunity to do the job he wanted. He gave a purposeful press conference before the match and spoke clearly in its aftermath. He has observed at first hand how Alec Stewart did the job and Michael Atherton before him. He did not come into it cold.

It helps when you win, of course, and victory in the opening Test of the summer broke the spell that has had England captains transfixed since Bob Willis won his first match in charge 17 long years ago. This is not the time to say that Hussain will go on to achieve wonderful things, only to note that he is looking ahead with a clear eye.

The horses he backed galloped impressively, though nobody should get too carried away by Andrew Caddick's eight wickets. If he could not have a productive bowl on that pitch, against those opponents, people would have been entitled to wonder why. He should be commended but it should not be forgotten that Dean Headley also took eight wickets in England's last Test, in Sydney, and six more in the game before, without which they would not have pulled that Christmas cracker in Melbourne.

Phil Tufnell also deserves commendation, no less than his captain, who told him not to be afraid of giving the ball some air. When Hussain spoke on Saturday of Tufnell's ``flight and dip and spin'' it was like hearing a farmer talk of a pet bull that has just come home from a country fair with a rosette in its ear.

Two marks, then, for Hussain's selection. Now, the hard bit. If he is absolutely honest, he cannot claim any marks for retaining Stewart as opener. The former captain should not have played at Edgbaston but, oddly enough, having failed, the selectors may feel duty-bound to give him another chance to fail at Lord's.

Hussain was all sympathy afterwards. ``It's been a difficult couple of weeks for Alec. Opening the batting on that pitch was hard work and he got a couple of good balls. We have all had a week like that but Alec is strong enough to come back. I'm sure he will fight back. I know that.''

Mmm. That sounds too much like a man talking himself up, in the hope that brave words will disguise his concern. It's a good try, by a man who feels sympathy for the man he has succeeded, but it will not wash. It made little sense to go into this match with Stewart, however hard he bit his lip, publicly lamenting his demotion.

Picking him was one of those botched jobs, of which England selectors are so fond. It was a sop, a compensatory decision for relieving him of the captaincy, and those are the worst kind of decisions because they absolve the selectors of the responsibility of looking beyond the usual cast list to make the hard choices.

There is no place for sentiment at this level of cricket. As David Gower once said, in regard to another matter: ``It is not Old Reptonians against Lymeswold, one off the mark and jolly good show.'' How it escaped Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting, who between them played 197 Tests, is astonishing and a bit worrying. Perhaps it is time that David Graveney, who may feel a bit cowed in their company because he played no Tests at all, got tougher.

Stewart made one run at Edgbaston, off an inside edge, and missed two chances at second slip. For all Hussain's words of support it is undeniable that his powers have waned and that is a great shame. Stewart has served England wonderfully well, and without complaint, but when a batsman's skills begin to decline at 36 there is not much anybody can do. Stewart has done very well to last that long.

There has been talk that ``good players do not become poor ones overnight''. No, they do not, usually, though it is possible. In Stewart's case there is evidence that he has regressed over the course of the last, onerous year. The selectors chose to ignore that evidence when they met last week but it will not go away and until the problem is resolved England will not make progress.

It is instructive to compare Stewart's situation with that of David Boon, who stood down from the Australia team three winters ago, shortly before his 36th birthday. Boon had been a pillar of the side, good enough to make 21 hundreds in 107 Tests, and hold down the No 3 position through years of solid achievement. The team batted round him and yet, when the moment arrived, he held up his hand and left the stage to other, younger men. It was a most dignified departure.

Although it must be admitted that Australia have a bigger pool of talented young players, there is still no excuse for prolonging Stewart's career unnaturally at the expense of others, who may now have more to offer. Michael Vaughan is in the selectors' thoughts and Darren Maddy, who should really be one place behind the Yorkshireman in the queue, made a timely hundred, against Yorkshire, last week.

One does not always pick a Test team on county form. England players should be judged by their performance at international level until there is a case to review their place. There was an excellent opportunity to review Stewart's place before the Edgbaston Test and the selectors, feeling perhaps that two new caps were enough, decided to stick with him.

It is a critical time for the opening position. Apart from Stewart, who has played 87 Tests, there is also concern about Atherton, who is unlikely to add to his 88 caps, so wretched is his back condition. At the moment he is doing more scribbling than batting - and a good deal more entertainingly!

Those gaps leave an awful lot of experience to replace and the selectors do the team's prospects no good at all by faffing about. There is an important tour to South Africa this winter, where Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock will be waiting. Last year they bowled South Africa to a 5-0 drubbing of the West Indies.

Hussain is believed to be considering taking on the opener's job himself, a move that would release a position in the middle order. This week, when he meets Duncan Fletcher, England's new coach, in Cardiff to discuss matters of mutual interest, that may be as good a place to start as any.