As promised, I am going to review the one-day series that concluded in India with a thrilling win for England. As expected the speeches about character and spirit followed and most of the praise was well deserved. India is hard place to churn out results but New Zealand might be even trickier.

The Indians are talented cricketers but appear to be one-dimensional. Once you become accustomed to their approach they appear to be easy to predict. The shape of the last series does not surprise me as I expected England to grow stronger as they worked out the Indians but, although the result was satisfactory in the end, I am still worried that we are not reacting quickly enough. As the games are all being billed and used as the warm up for the World Cup, our notorious slow starts in one-day series could be our Achilles heel. The format of the World Cup suggests that you need to `hit your straps' early to get into the final stages. If we can do that, I can see us finishing the competition strongly as opposed to fading without a fight.

This is why the New Zealand leg of this tour is so crucial. The Kiwis are canny and original and England will find them hard to break down. Here is an ideal situation where we can try to grab this series by the scruff of the neck from the very first ball and back our wits against theirs. Anything less than a series win will not be good enough and can effectively make or break our World Cup plans.

I can sense disagreement as some people might think this is premature. There is a lot of cricket between now and the World Cup but my judgement is based on the fact that strategies should be well in place by the time we go to Australia with roles of players clearly defined so that they have the opportunity to master those roles. With the players in place and fairly assured, more detailed planning becomes easier as players are confident of responding to one-off strategies - if required.

So are England's hopes of winning the World Cup realistic? I say yes and I mean it. India showed we can finish and if we can prove that we can get it together from the start and be brave enough to react sharply then we can start practising our acceptance speeches. Not quite as straightforward as that I know but I hope everyone is dreaming of it like I am.

So… that review of the Indian series I promised. Forgive me for drifting but I am sure you know what happened in India. Looking forward is far more exciting.

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