Alex Tudor was forced to pull out of the first Test against India, which starts at Lord's on Thursday, even as England's selectors delayed naming their squad to face India until Saturday morning. Tudor, who has had a poor fitness record in his four-year Test career, was on a course of anti-inflammatory tablets in a bid to overcome his shin splints. His failure to make the squad stretches England's bowling resources to the very limit, with Andy Caddick still suffering from the side strain he picked up during the third Test against Sri Lanka last month, and Darren Gough an uncertain starter, having not played Test cricket since last summer's Ashes series. Gough seemed to have proved his fitness during the NatWest triangular series, but according to the Sun newspaper, he saw a specialist on Monday and was advised to rest his knee, which kept him out of the Sri Lanka series.

Gough has yet to play a four-day match this season, and needs to show the England management that he can get through 25 overs a day before the Lord's Test. He was, however, selected for Yorkshire's championship match against Lancashire at Headingley, and will surely be named in the squad when it is announced tomorrow.

"Darren has had a heavy few weeks, and, although he got through the NatWest Series one-day matches okay, he's a little achy and sore," said Dean Conway, England's physio. "I'll speak to him to find out how he feels. It's not possible at this stage to say whether he will be okay for the Test match."

If Gough, Caddick and Tudor all fail to make it, a heavy burden would fall on Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff, who led the line the last time England and India faced each other in a Test series. Hoggard and Flintoff, along with Tudor, responded superbly on a flat track when Caddick limped out of the third Test against Sri Lanka, but bowling to Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and friends in searing heat could be a different matter.

If England persist with five bowlers, as they surely will, Dominic Cork or Simon Jones would be favourites to win the final spot, alongside Hoggard, Flintoff, Tudor and Ashley Giles. Even though he has a worse bowling average at Lord's than Gough and Caddick - and Phil Newport, for that matter - England have a thing for Cork and Lord's, like a fan with a lucky pair of pants: three of Cork's last four Test appearances have been there.

England's batting line-up is no more settled, with Marcus Trescothick likely to miss the rest of the season after suffering a multiple fracture of his left thumb during Somerset's C&G Trophy quarter-final against Worcestershire.

Trescothick sustained the injury trying to stop a Graeme Hick cover-drive.

"He is having the bone pinned at the moment and we expect him to be out for between six to 10 weeks," said Peter Anderson, Somerset's chief executive. "He's pretty distressed as one can imagine, but that is part and parcel of professional sport."

For England to lose one of their linchpins and their vice-captain would be a blow at the best of times, but Trescothick had been in the form of his life this summer. He bludgeoned 354 runs in three Tests against Sri Lanka, and was the top scorer in the NatWest Series with 362 runs, including a meaty century in the final.

England have a number of options when it comes to selecting Trescothick's replacement. John Crawley could come in at No. 5, with everyone shuffling one place up the order. That would mean Mark Butcher opening, as he probably would if Ian Bell was selected. But if England decide to keep Butcher at No. 3, where he has excelled since returning to the side last summer, the Kent pair of Rob Key and David Fulton are likely to get a mention.

Then there are the old hands. Mark Ramprakash has been in outstanding form, following up two County Championship double-hundreds with a century in Surrey's C&G quarter-final against Sussex. And then there's the man who caused Trescothick's injury - maybe Hick still has eyes on an England place after all.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd