Whether the imagination of the England selectors will be any more successful than Baldric's, only the outcome of the Ashes series will tell but as very recent events have shown, England will need something different if they are to bowl Australia out twice on true surfaces.
The batting is experienced, despite the decision to leave out the only England qualified player to have scored a hundred hundreds, Graeme Hick. The official reserves were not identified but he will be one of several players in key areas of the team who will be paid to keep themselves fit in case of injury. All seven specialist batsmen have played against Australia and they have made 41 Test centuries between them.
The chairman of selectors, David Graveney, said after the announcement at Lord's yesterday that the choice between Hick and John Crawley was the hardest decision he had ever had to make. Hick did marginally better than the then relatively inexperienced Crawley last time in Australia but his fine innings in the Brisbane and Sydney Tests were played in the second innings.
Crawley's batting under extreme pressure at Sydney was impressive and although at home last year against Australia he also failed to make an impact in the first innings, he had emphasised his class and versatility for Lancashire this season before trumping Hick's excellent first- innings hundred against Sri Lanka with an even better one of his own. He and Mark Ramprakash will be considered as Test openers on the tour in the event of injury to Mike Atherton or Mark Butcher. Like Hick, Steve James is likely to be a paid reserve.
Summarising the philosophy behind the selection of the main party, Graveney said: ``Our Ashes squad is made up of what we consider to be a very experienced batting line-up, while our choice of bowlers reflects the areas we believe we can exploit in Australia.''
The final bowling choice lay between Such and Phil Tufnell once it was decided that two specialist spinners were essential. There are precedents for sending not just two off-spinners to Australia but three - Fred Titmus and David Allen played successfully together on more than one overseas tour in the Sixties and Eddie Hemmings, Geoff Miller and Vic Marks all went in 1982-83 - but Australian eyebrows will certainly be raised at the preference for Such over Tufnell, who would not only have balanced the spin attack should two be played together in the New Year Test at Sydney, but whose match figures in England's last Test against Australia a year ago were 11 for 93.
Such last played for England at Old Trafford against New Zealand in 1994. He did not take a wicket, in contrast to the six-wicket analysis with which he had begun his Test career on the same ground against Australia on a turning pitch. Like Tufnell, he can virtually be relied upon to bowl sides out on the rare occasions when a finger spinner gets real help but unlike 'The Cat', he is a steady character in the clean-living mould of the tour's captain and manager, Alec Stewart and Graham Gooch.
Such has had a lean season but not half so lean as Croft, whose 18 wickets have cost 60 runs apiece. He has lost his arm ball, it seems, quite apart from finding no pitch to exploit, so he and his rival for a Test place will need all the assistance they can get from Mullally's big feet. The odds are against two spinners being played even at Sydney but the selectors felt that cover was needed should a selected spinner break a finger in practice on the eve of a Test.
The same principle applied when it came to choosing a second wicketkeeper. As anticipated, Warren Hegg has got his chance at the age of 30 on the grounds of his reliable record over many seasons and a good one with the bat for Lancashire this year 587 runs at 45.
As expected, Dean Headley was the fifth experienced fast bowler chosen, ahead of Andrew Caddick and Ed Giddins. Caddick's performance this season -not least yesterday - suggests that a mistake has been made.
Alex Tudor, of Surrey, was the young man capable of genuinely fast bowling chosen, ahead of Steve Harmison, of Durham, in the hope that he will develop during the tour under the guidance of the bowling coach, Bob Cottam. Graveney said of him: ``Tudor is up there with the quickest.''
He is fortunate to be singled out but so is Ben Hollioake who has much to prove.