Graham Thorpe and Chris Silverwood have been called into England's one-day squad for Zimbabwe at the last minute after Craig White joined Jimmy Ormond on the sick list, just two days before departure. Many a recent tour has featured an SOS to a player on stand-by, but not even England have had to send for two reinforcements before they have even reached Heathrow. Ormond dropped out 10 days ago with tendinitis in his right knee, while White twisted the same part of his anatomy in pre-tour training. It's a case of knees down, Mother Brown.

By swapping Thorpe for White, England have summoned their most adept one-day batsman in place of one of their many bowlers who bat. It is the most curious substitution since Matthew Fleming deputised for Darren Gough in the squad for Sharjah four years ago.

The chairman of selectors, David Graveney, explained it by revealing that White had been in line to bat in the top three as a pinch-hitter. But Thorpe isn't a pinch-hitter, whereas two other members of the party – Andy Flintoff and Ben Hollioake – could be. What had clearly occurred to the selectors was that the original squad was dangerously inexperienced. As of this morning, they had 223 one-day caps between them, less than a quarter of the total Zimbabwe are likely to have. Thorpe, who captained England in their last one-day series abroad, in Sri Lanka last March, adds 68 caps to the collection – plus the priceless ability to work the ball around in the middle overs, which is not one of England's strong points.

The decision may rebound on Thorpe's Surrey colleague Mark Ramprakash, who was the only senior middle-order batsman in the original party apart from Nasser Hussain. Ramprakash has been in the one-day wilderness since 1997-98 and may remain there if Thorpe and Hussain stay fitter than they have recently. The first-choice top six now appears to be: Nick Knight, Marcus Trescothick, Flintoff, Thorpe, Hussain and Hollioake. Ramprakash or Owais Shah could elbow out one of Flintoff and Hollioake, but with a wicketkeeper (James Foster) to be fitted in down the order now that Alec Stewart is out of the picture, that would leave Hussain with only five bowlers.

And all of them beginners. In White, England have lost the only bowler of any experience in their squad. The biggest ODI wicket-taker among them is now Flintoff with seven. Silverwood has three wickets, Hollioake and Trescothick two each, so the whole squad has a grand total of 14 wickets. You have to wonder whether they will have collected many more by the time they return.

The likely new-ball pair, Matthew Hoggard of Yorkshire and James Kirtley of Sussex, have not played one-day internationals at all. Silverwood may have to wait for one of those two to break down, but he will surely start higher up the pecking-order than the other specialist seamer, Ryan Sidebottom, whose magnificent coiffure is seldom seen in the vicinity of a Yorkshire one-day strip.

Hussain may be ruing the decision to pension off Mark Ealham, who recorded England's best one-day figures, 5 for 15, against Zimbabwe less than two years ago.

Tim de Lisle is editor of Wisden.com.

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