If both play on Thursday, Dean Headley would probably be left out. Ealham, reliable performer though he normally is, has not taken a first-class wicket all season. But he bats increasingly effectively against anything other than top-class wrist spin and his all-round performance in the corresponding match at Edgbaston against Australia last year - 53 not out and three for 60 - played a useful part in obtaining the nine-wicket victory.

Cork's return is welcome indeed. There is no point in guessing how different the series in the West Indies might have been if he and Darren Gough had both been fit to play - after all, if they had, Angus Fraser would almost certainly have been left behind - but these two and Fraser are without question the three fast bowlers in England whose ability has best stood up to the ultimate trial of Test cricket.

Gough, like Ealham, has not played for England since the fourth Test of last season, when the base of the hamstring behind his right knee began to give him the pain and swelling which ended in surgery and this season's steady return to full pace and effectiveness. Cork's last match was at Christchurch the winter before, when his 39 not out at the end of a tense match saw England past 300 in the fourth innings to win. It masked an alarmingly swift decline in his first suit, incisive fast-medium swing bowling.

Starting with domestic disharmony and ending with omission from the tour party to the Caribbean, 1997 was Cork's annus abominablis. Against the West Indies in his dramatic first series at the age of 23, three years ago, he looked the best bowling discovery made by England since Gough, and the two together were the best since Fraser. The trick now will be to see if England can keep all three fit until the end of the Test series in Australia next February.

It is long odds against, unless Davids Graveney and Lloyd are very effective in their negotiations with the theoretically compliant chairmen of Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Middlesex. But if they not only remain fit but bowl with their heads as well, this could be the basis of a proper Test attack, supplemented by Robert Croft or another fast bowler and, sooner rather than later, Ian Salisbury.

The leg-spinner, too, has been under a cloud until recently, and so far for England he has looked a Test bowler only in his first game against Pakistan. He, rather than Ashley Giles or Phil Tufnell, would probably be the one called up on Tuesday if the pitch is drier than the selectors are expecting. They have reserved the right.

Having resolved their all-rounder dilemma by picking them both (and leaving out both Hollioakes) the committee took the advice of the new captain, Alec Stewart, when it came to choosing who should go in first with Mike Atherton. The result is that last season's opening partnership has been given a second lease of life, after the reversion to Stewart and Atherton in the Caribbean. Butcher opened with the then captain in five of the six Cornhill Tests against Australia, but only in the second innings at Lord's, when they made sure of a draw with a stand of 162, did they put on even 50 together.

Atherton's most recent form is excellent and Butcher's still more so. He averages 90 this season and said yesterday that he is now playing as well as he was two years ago. He must make a Test hundred soon, or give way.

Butcher's path to a Test cap, via a successful A tour, was expected to be the one trodden by Darren Maddy this time, but the selectors seem to have got cold feet about him. His time will surely come, but Butcher's form, Allan Donald's relative lack of domination against left-handers and the advantage of a left-hand/right-hand combination were the reasons, not any evidence gleaned from a single one-day international innings.

The other disappointed batsman is Nick Knight. If and when he reappears as a Test player it will probably be lower in the order. As it stands, Graham Thorpe will remain at five in the order with Nasser Hussain reverting to three, Stewart moving to four and Mark Ramprakash remaining at six. It looks promising but South Africa are going to be very hard to beat.

England Squad
                            Age Tests
M A Atherton (Lancashire)   30  79 
M A Butcher (Surrey)        25  10 
N Hussain (Essex)           30  29 
*+A J Stewart (Surrey)      35  75 
G P Thorpe (Surrey)         28  49 
M R Ramprakash (Middlesex)  28  23 
M A Ealham (Kent)           28   6 
D G Cork (Derbyshire)       26  19
R D B Croft (Glamorgan)     28  11
D Gough (Yorkshire)         27  21
D W Headley (Kent)          28   9 
A R C Fraser (Middlesex)    32  38