The England dressing-room won't be a happy place tonight. Embarrassing middle-order collapses have become a feature of England's winter, and slip-slide syndrome threatens to stymie Duncan Fletcher and Nasser Hussain as they search for the ideal combination for the World Cup. In India the six one-dayers included some dramatic dips - from 224 for 4 to 246 for 9 at Calcutta, 144 for 2 to 166 for 6 at Kanpur, 153 for 2 to 174 for 7 at Mumbai. In that last game four middle-order wickets tumbled for just two runs - but at least England actually won the match. Today 156 for 2 became 196 all out, and despite Darren Gough's sensational second spell, that was never enough.

England just can't seem to sort out the middle order. Today Graham Thorpe showed a return to form - but Paul Collingwood and Andy Flintoff showed a return to single-figure territory, and Craig White's comeback with the bat (four balls for 0) was almost as chronic as his bowling (five overs for 36). It's time for a couple of people to put their hands up, as the players are so fond of saying.

And James Foster failed again. In 11 one-dayers now his highest score is 13, and England can't persevere much longer with a wicketkeeper who isn't contributing any runs ... especially when he's still horribly fallible behind the stumps. Today's steepler off Chris Nevin was almost as embarrassing as the swirler Foster dropped on his debut in Zimbabwe. He had the excuse of the sun that time, but today it was dark. And this one was vital - Nevin went on to score an important 55 as the openers put on 99.

No other country plays a wicketkeeper who can't bat in one-dayers any more. So it's time for Foster to start chipping in with the thirties and forties he looks capable of. Otherwise Marcus Trescothick could find himself packing the keeping gloves as well as his batting ones. One thing's for sure: Alec Stewart won't have been bothered too much by indigestion over the winter.

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