When Steve Harmison was giving Phil Hughes a going-over at Worcester the last couple of days, the talk began that he might yet sneak into the squad for the first Ashes Test; and it is a testament to the allure of the Durham man that his omission from it remains the headline.

Like a happily married man who still sends occasional drunken texts to that hot ex-girlfriend, England cricket still finds Steve a deliciously tempting proposition.

We choose to remember all those exciting, wild times, comparing them favourably with the more homely charms of the present day and pushing the string of disappointments and let-downs to the back of the mind.

In the end, the selectors have come to their senses before a bit of harmless flirting turned into a full-blown affair, and have stuck with the less saucy but more trustworthy Graham Onions. Whether he will play or not remains to be seen: my hunch is that he will, that England's innate mistrust of a two-spinner attack will win out.

Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson being a given, imagine Graham Swann and Monty Panesar completing a five-bowler attack. I cannot see both spinners getting anything like one fifth of the team overs each: one of them will be, for at least one innings, a virtual passenger. And given that Monty is a liability when he is not bowling, I suspect that the selectors will step back from the two-spin brink.

Onions sounded absolutely chuffed at his inclusion in the squad, and his tone seemed very much of the 'when I bowl at Cardiff' rather than 'if I bowl at Cardiff'. Maybe the management has tipped him a wink; perhaps he is just willing it to be so.

One man who is in the 13 but is surely just making up the numbers is Ian Bell. It would be a major surprise if he is not carrying the drinks on Wednesday; perhaps he may be sent back up the M5 on Tuesday to play in Warwickshire's home match against Sussex. A last-minute injury is his only chance.

Of the 16-man squad England named a fortnight ago, Ryan Sidebottom, Tim Bresnan and Adil Rashid miss out. Sidebottom will get a chance again if one of the bowlers gets injured, but Bresnan has the look of the unlucky cricketer about him, picked for a first Test in which he hardly bowled and forced to watch on as his fellow debutant cleaned up.

Still, he's only 24. As for Rashid, the selectors have correctly adjudged that the opening Test of the Ashes is no place for a young leg-spinner to start his career. His time will come.

The worrying thing for England's bowlers is that all of the Aussie top-order have now got in the runs in England to some extent. Whether Onions or Panesar plays, they are going to be a tough side to dismiss twice.

Alan Tyers