There has been no shortage of advice for David Graveney and the other England selectors since the eight-wicket defeat by Australia at Lord's.

Drop Stewart says Dennis Lillee. Pick Tufnell demands the CricInfo poll. Drop yourself, Geoff Lawson urged Graveney.

And as well as all the conflicting advice, the selectors have the odd injury problem to take into account. Unavailable are Graham Thorpe, Michael Vaughan, Matthew Hoggard and now Ashley Giles, who will have an operation on his bothersome Achilles tendon on Monday and will be out of action for four to six months.

And it seems increasingly unlikely that skipper Nasser Hussain will miss his second consecutive Test because of a fractured finger. Hussain said yesterday: "It started feeling better two or three days ago, but the moment it goes in a glove or around a bat, it's in a lot of pain. The physio tells me that will die down in a week or so, then I've got to get in the nets and get playing. Ten days maybe, I don't know."

Which means Michael Atherton will step into the breach again and lead England out at Trent Bridge on Thursday. But who will be the other ten behind him?

The batting needs bolstering but it is unlikely that the selectors will follow Lillee's advice; instead it seems that Ian Ward will be the player whose place is threatened when the squad is announced tomorrow.

Graveney has been to Lord's for the Middlesex-Durham game to view two contenders - Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood. And Usman Afzaal, who played in the First Test but made way for Thorpe at Lord's, sent a timely reminder to the selectors yesterday with a hundred, albeit against Derbyshire. However, the fact that the Third Test is at his home ground and the current England philosophy rails against picking people for only one Test might work in his favour.

On the bowling front, Darren Gough and Andy Caddick are in desperate need of support and the whole attack has lacked variety so a spinner could appear at Nottingham. Now Giles is out of the equation it looks like a toss-up between Robert Croft and Phil Tuffnell. The latter would be the people's choice - although Tufnell himself might not exactly relish bowling on a Trent Bridge shirtfront - but Croft is probably the likelier to get the selectors' nod.

Hussain said: "Tufnell is a fine bowler, has played a lot of Test matches for England. We've got to show consistency in selection. There are people who have done us proud in the last year or two, and we've got to make sure they are fit and we've got to select the best side available for Trent Bridge.

"We have three Test matches left; none of us have given up, people might have given up on us, but none of us have given up. We've got to show both the Australian side and our own public that we are better than we are playing at the moment and we've got three Tests matches to do that."

After Dominic Cork failed to work his magic at Lord's, the Derbyshire captain will probably be left out of the squad, making way for either Alex Tudor or Chris Silverwood. Tudor made an excellent comeback from injury in the Benson and Hedges Cup final while Silverwood is not even in the Yorkshire side at the moment so the Surrey man will probably get the vote.

But another paceman in with a chance is Alan Mullally who did his case no harm at all with his performance against the Australians for Hampshire; a left-armer would also add more variety to the attack.

Possible squad: Hussain (captain), Atherton, Trescothick, Butcher, Ramprakash, Afzaal, Stewart (wicket-keeper), White, Tudor, Croft, Caddick, Gough, Mullally.

© CricInfo Ltd.