The last minor match of England's tour of India starts tomorrow. It's five days' play gone, three to go in this fast-forward acclimatisation. So far they have batted very well, then less well, then badly, and have bowled indifferently, poorly and then quite well. The best performances have mostly come from the sure things, not the fringe players. Three of the original 16 - Usman Afzaal, Warren Hegg and Richard Johnson - haven't made it out of the nets yet, and now Andy Flintoff is here too. As England prepare to face India A in the pink city of Jaipur, these are the puzzles they have to solve. Butcher or Vaughan, or both?
The top order has almost an embarrassment of riches - not that Sanjay Bangar noticed on Saturday. Nasser Hussain is back to his hooking-and-pulling bristling best, and Graham Thorpe, though he could do with a nice little fifty at Jaipur, left indelible teethmarks in the teamsheet during last winter's subcontinental adventure. Marcus Trescothick, a centurymaker at Galle in February and a different man against spin these days, clubbed a good 60 in his one innings at Mumbai, while Mark Ramprakash has cover-driven all the way to his own personal nirvana - that happy place that lies between patience and aggression, but definitely in the Test team.

So then there were three. Poor Usman Afzaal might as well join the detectives sniffing out old cabbages back at the hotel – which leaves Mark Butcher and Michael Vaughan. Who misses out? The man who gave England the biggest fillip of last summer with his matchwinning 173 against Australia, or the man who made a hundred in his last Test, against Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis? The man whose career was resurrected under the Fletcher-Hussain axis, or the man who was discovered, nurtured and polished under it? Butcher hasn't failed on this tour, but neither has he set the world alight. Vaughan has hardly got a run, but has timed the ball beautifully. The easy answer would be to play six batsmen, in which case the question becomes ...

White or Flintoff, or both?
It's like a Rubik's Cube. You complete one side, turn it over ... and nothing fits. And unfortunately Fletcher can't cheat - 17 into 11 just doesn't go, however cleverly you arrange the stickers. Craig White made a destructive 79 not out at Mumbai - the sort of Gilchristian innings that could demoralise Harbhajan Singh in half a session. But then he went back into single figures at Hyderabad. And when he bowled, he could hardly get the ball up the other end. He is a fourth seamer at the moment, not a second or third one, except maybe on Mars. Which leaves Flintoff. But can someone with only a week's acclimatisation be ready? In his favour are the conditions at Mohali, which can be chilly and grassy, and his new-found hearty appetite for hard work. He had an excellent Zimbabwe tour, and has impressed everyone at the Adelaide academy, but how fair is it to ask him to take the new ball for England when he doesn't even do it for Lancashire? Flintoff nearly gave up bowling to save his career. England have to be very sure, to prescribe him 20 overs a day on India's pancake pitches. If he does take the new ball, he and White can both play, and the lower order could put on a firework display. He will also lift the slip fielding, which is thin with no Atherton, Knight or Hick in the party.

Dawson or Ball, or both?
It could be that England play neither, if Ashley Giles is fit and they go seam-heavy at Mohali. But then if Giles breaks down again ... Both England's uncapped offspinners have a chance of a Test, and it is difficult to tell who would be the more surprised to get one. The wonderfully rotund Ball is eager, frisky, willing and, as he showed at the weekend, able to score a run or two. He is the Jeremy Snape of this squad – no world-beater but a dedicated enthusiast, a brilliant fielder and someone who uses his stature to his advantage - giving the batsman enough loop to hang himself with. Sridharan Sriram, who scored 149 in England's second match at Hyderabad, considered Ball the pick of the bowlers. His challenger is Richard Dawson, about whom Graham Dilley said there was something rather special after one game. Wayne Clark at Yorkshire has seen it too - even landing him with that Future England Captain tag. Tall and bespectacled like a right-armed Daniel Vettori, Dawson had an excellent debut, but then suffered from second-album syndrome at Hyderabad - something that Fletcher dismissed as a bad day at the office. Hussain, in his newspaper column, likened Dawson to an Australian offspinner with his drift and outside-off line. Which gives a gentle hint as to which way they are leaning.

Foster or Hegg?
This would seem to be clear-cut. Fletcher said at the beginning of the tour that he and Hussain had pretty much made up about their minds about the wicketkeeper, and no-one was exactly gobsmacked when Foster walked out with the gloves at Mumbai. And he has kept well, his nightmarish debut in Zimbabwe forgotten. In the space of a week he has stood up to Matthew Hoggard, kept invisibly to two alien spinners and seen first-hand just how well the Indian batsmen use their feet. But he hasn't made any runs yet. Hegg,with a first-class average of nearly 50 last season, would bolster the batting and give his bottom rupee for a third Test cap. He also knows Sourav Ganguly's game inside out, and Flintoff's bowling.

Tricky, isn't it?

Tanya Aldred, our assistant editor, is covering the whole of England's tour for Wisden.com.

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