Ronnie Irani is in line for his first Test cap for three years, after being named as Andrew Flintoff's replacement for the final Test against India at The Oval next Thursday. And Marcus Trescothick, who emerged unscathed from Somerset's six-wicket defeat to Yorkshire in the C&G Final, returns to resume his prolific opening partnership with Michael Vaughan, although Robert Key is retained in the squad as his understudy.

The prospects of Key earning a third cap in the near future are slim, however, as David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, has said that England will not play seven specialist batsmen.

"The selectors discussed the likely shape of the team when we met earlier in the week and we were not inclined to play only four bowlers," said Graveney. "This policy did not work for us against Sri Lanka at Lord's earlier in the summer and we feel that we will need a five-bowler combination for this Test."

Ashley Giles is named as the solitary spinner, which suggests that Vaughan may have a fairly heavy workload if the surface begins to turn. Graveney, though, was confident that a seam attack would suffice.

"At this stage without having seen the wicket, we are not expecting a surface which is especially helpful to spin," he said. "As a consequence we have decided not to include a second specialist spinner in the squad."

Irani had keyhole surgery on his knee last Monday, but has made a remarkable recovery and has been passed fit to play. Flintoff, despite his modest statistical returns this summer, is a key, all-action component of the England side and therefore extremely difficult to replace. Craig White, who would have been the obvious choice, is currently precluded from bowling by a side strain. Dominic Cork, another injury worry in recent weeks, retains his place in the squad despite modest returns so far this summer.

There are alarming parallels with Irani's last Test, in 1999, which also took place at The Oval. That, too, was a winner-takes-all clash to end a four-Test series in which England had led by winning the first Test. Irani made 1 and 9, and took one wicket, as England lost to New Zealand and surrendered the series 2-1.

But he has been an outstanding success this season - his first-class averages are 63 with the bat and 21 with the ball, and he has done wonders in one-day cricket. Domestically, though, he is the sort of energetic hustler who overwhelms people as Ian Botham once did. At the highest level, Irani is not good enough to do that. His success in the one-day NatWest Series owed much to his reinvention as a line-and-length merchant, but Test cricket demands a little bit more than that.

England have many too many selection gaffes in series deciders in the past. In South Africa in 1995-96 Ray Illingworth decided that five bowlers were needed to win the series, so England batted Jack Russell as high as No. 6 - and were blown away in three days. And in 1999, when a burgeoning crisis called for cool, experienced heads, England gave debuts to Ed Giddins and Darren Maddy against New Zealand, as well as recalling Irani. In addition, they had the longest tail in modern Test history, with Alan Mullally quite preposterously batting at No. 9, above Phil Tufnell and Ed Giddins. Two pitiful lower-order collapses later, England were labelled the worst team in the world. They won't be quite that bad if they lose this time, but India haven't won a series outside Asia for 16 years. If England do lose, it would be pretty humiliating stuff.

England
Robert Key, Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain (capt), John Crawley, Alec Stewart, Ronnie Irani, Ashley Giles, Dominic Cork, Alex Tudor, Andrew Caddick, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison

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