Limited Success?

Pietersen - issues to resolve.

Nasser Hussain says win or lose, England need to sort out the same old ODI issues against South Africa.

The one thing I would like to see from England in this one-day series is a consistent level of performance.

You don't mind them losing because any side can lose, especially to South Africa, but we need to look at a much bigger picture.

I want to see a clearer and more consistent thought process, not least at the top of the order. If they can sort out that opening partnership but still lose the series, I will still consider it a success.

They could've turned to Kent and gone for Rob Key and Joe Denly, but as the series begins it will be Ian Bell and Matt Prior. All the heavyweights are in the middle order, Luke Wright hasn't really worked out as an opener so moves back down and there is really only one place Prior can bat after all that.

As well as the personnel, England have to sort out how they are going to play one-day cricket, especially at the top of the order. That has been where they have really struggled.

It's not anyone's fault either - our county system is to blame.

We play our one-day cricket at the beginning of the summer when the ball is moving around, nipping around and that means our top-order batsmen are playing a completely different game to one-day international cricket.

Our domestic games are also usually tagged on the end of a four-dayer, which doesn't give anyone any time to properly think about how they are going to approach the shorter game or what to do with the powerplays.

England need to address that. They had a gameplan in the World Cup and that was to play what they called 'orthodox' cricket, but it didn't work. The game against South Africa in Barbados was proof enough: we were something like 20 for 1 or 30 for 1 after the first 10 overs, while the South Africans were something like 70 for 1 at the same stage.

They were playing modern one-day cricket and that is what England need to start doing.

They need to be flexible as well. With so many games in this series and so many different pitches and conditions to deal with, they need to be able to change their approach. At Headingley it could be swinging and moving around early on, so they can't just go out there and blast away. They will need to adjust.

I want to see them thinking on their feet. In one-day cricket things change very, very quickly, and you have to be able to adapt instantly.

Which is why it will be tougher for Kevin Pietersen as captain. In a Test match things move along at a nice pace but in the limited overs game, things are thrown at you as a captain all the time. Pietersen will need to adapt from ground to ground, game to game, situation to situation.

But I do like the way he is stamping his mark on the team already. He has brought Steve Harmison back, he wanted Owais Shah at three and it looks as if he is going to be a captain that makes decisions. It is all too easy to hide behind the coach and the selectors when you are captain but it was something I tried not to do and it looks as if Pietersen is going to be the same.

And he does have a very good chance of starting his one-day reign with a series win.

It looks to me as if South Africa might be one batsman short. It looks as if Jean-Paul Duminy will be batting at five and Mark Boucher at six and for me, that is one too high up the order for both. Albie Morkel is also injured and I do think this is a great opportunity for England.

I had the same concern ahead of the Test series and it didn't prove decisive, but I also think the tourists might be a little under-cooked when it comes to the one-day game.

There is no doubt they are a dangerous side and you only have to look back at their one-day form before this tour, where they whitewashed the West Indies and Bangladesh and put together nine wins on the spin.

But that was a while ago and they haven't really had much preparation for this, so England have a decent chance. It is also an opportunity for people to stake a claim for the Test side because the tour of India is just round the corner.

Prior can do his wicket-keeping chances some good and although Ravi Bopara is ahead of him in the Test pecking order, Shah also has a chance to show what he can do at number three.

The Test and one-day squads might be different entities, but a performance for England is a performance for England.

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