By Mike Selvey From The Guardian UK

Andrew Strauss will have the power of veto for England’s selection meeting at Trent Bridge – but he should not need to exert it to hand the Yorkshire opener his debut at Lord’s against New Zealand

Another day, another dawn for England cricket. The team for whom rancour is almost a perpetual presence continues to drag it around like a ball and chain. Now Andrew Strauss is the man charged with providing a blueprint to success and it will begin at Trent Bridge where he will attend the selection meeting to pick the squad for the first Test against New Zealand, less than a fortnight after the last series ended in a defeat in Barbados.

During his time as the managing director of England cricket, Paul Downton regularly attended selection meetings in an observational capacity, something that James Whitaker and his fellow selectors may have found claustrophobic. However, Downton’s brief was more wide-ranging and he had no executive say in selection. Strauss says he has yet to assess the value of the current selection process and so for the time being the status quo will remain with Whitaker, Angus Fraser, Mick Newell and now Paul Farbrace, in charge of the team pro tem, replacing Peter Moores. It will part of Strauss’s remit, however, to have the power of veto, which he may conclude makes the current panel unwieldy: the more people involved, the less likelihood of a consensus or decisiveness. Ultimately it must change.

This first meeting may not be too challenging because the main issues will centre around the opening partner for Alastair Cook, and, if not the balance of the attack, then the nature of its cutting edge. In the Caribbean, it became clear that however much it was dressed up, the decision to see whether Jonathan Trott could resume his international career, and in an unfamiliar position at that, was a flawed one. The fault for this lies not with the player, a batsman of significant achievement who worked extremely hard to rehabilitate himself after his traumas that began almost two years ago, and who not only wanted a place back but felt he had something to prove: he had nothing to prove. However, it always looked like a risk, particularly in an environment where risk-taking has not been a notable characteristic. By all accounts it was a very close call whether he made the cut for the final match, and ultimately was probably down to Cook that he did.

So instead of Adam Lyth now being three matches into what may prove to be a prolific career, perhaps even with a Test century, or even centuries, to his name, it is back to square one. It is surely inconceivable that Lyth, after such a prolific summer last year, and an excellent impression while on tour despite his disappointment,should not be making his debut at Lord’s, a thrilling prospect for any cricketer, and a challenge too against one of the best new-ball attacks in the business.

The middle order is seen to be settled, and besides Cook’s cathartic century in Barbados, there were good hundreds in the series for Gary Ballance, Joe Root and Ian Bell. Bell, though, ought not to feel complacent, for since his prolific summer of 2013, he has averaged only a little over 32, and if his 143 in Antigua was a masterpiece, he followed with 11, 1, 0 and 0. He is treading water and some, not least Alex Hales, are pushing hard.

The attack remains over-reliant on the magnificent Jimmy Anderson, though there are signs Stuart Broad is getting back to the adrenaline-fuelled bowler-on-a-roll that has been his hallmark. The need for a wicket-taking third seamer is a priority, and while Chris Jordan has made significant progress in terms of his run-up and high action, which brings him more control, he is not getting sufficient movement on the ball to trouble consistently: the role needs to be more than just an attritional one. His catching is phenomenal (and he should always stand at slip, rather than the overintellectualising where Joe Root goes to slip if there it is a floating position) but does not yet outweigh the lack of penetration. The nature of Lord’s, a pitch that tends to get flatter, may suit a skiddy reverser of the ball such as Mark Wood, rather than a taller bowler such as Liam Plunkett.

There could be just a faint chance that Adil Rashid could come into the reckoning but only as a second spinner to Moeen Ali, who can be expected, with more overs, to get back to the standard of last summer. Rashid lacks the control to bowl at what may be called international pace, and still get spin, but as he has shown for Yorkshire again, he has the knack of taking tail-end wickets. It would be a maverick selection, and at the expense of Ben Stokes. However, the sun comes up on a new day, and you never know.

Possible England squad Cook, Lyth, Ballance, Bell, Root, Stokes, Moeen Ali, Buttler, Jordan, Broad, Anderson, Wood, Rashid

IMAGE: Adam Lyth, England’s substitute fielder, celebrates taking a catch against West Indies in Barbados. Now he should be handed his debut at Lord’s. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images

For more on this story go to: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/may/13/adam-lyth-england-andrew-strauss-new-zealand