England's triumph against India in the seven-match series prior to the World Twenty20 in South Africa, plus their first win in Sri Lanka for 25 years, still brings them no closer to winning the next 50-over competition in the sub-continent in 2011.

Despite leading hosts Sri Lanka 2-1 in the current five-match series, England have serious problems in their team which better sides like Australia would exploit.

The power-play overs are a concern as no opening combination has clicked. Alastair Cook scores his runs slowly whilst keepers Matt Prior and Phil Mustard have yet to hit their straps at the top of the order. On form, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and skipper Paul Collingwood are menacing in the middle order, but beyond them there is a serious lack of batting depth. Ravi Bopara has shown some promise, but Dimi Mascarenhas and Luke Wright have not yet shown that they can make big scores on a consistent enough basis.

Surely taking Cook out and adding an aggressive opening batsman like James Benning or Will Jefferson, or promoting Ian Bell to opener and putting an extra batsman in down the order, would serve England better. Getting a settled side is key for any tournament so young players like Yorkshire's Adil Rashid and Samit Patel of Notts should be given a go with plenty of time before the World Cup so they have enough time to prove they are good enough in the international stage.

The bowling department is strong with Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson and especially Ryan Sidebottom providing a quality three-prong seam attack backed up by the spin of Graeme Swann, and Collingwood as fifth bowler.

To win in 2011 England will need to pick two spinners, with Owais Shah and Pietersen as potential back-ups. This is why Monty Panesar should be bowling in tandem with Swann and a seamer dropped. Without two decent spinners, England will not win the next World Cup (whose future is in question following the recent success of the Twenty20 World Cup).