England hold the aces

England start favourites for the first npower Test at Lord's, which starts - weather permitting - at 10.45am today. Anything less than a comprehensive victory - to mirror the one they achieved at Lord's three years ago, in the first match between these sides in this country - will be seen as a failure, despite the injuries which have reshaped Nasser Hussain's bowling attack.

James Kirtley and James Anderson practise ahead of the match ... and their Test debuts? © Getty Images

In a perfect world Hussain would be tossing the new ball to Darren Gough and Andy Caddick, with Andy Flintoff flexing his muscles as a fourth seamer. But all those three are absent with injuries, and instead Hussain has a promising debutant (Jimmy Anderson), a man feeling his way back into form (Matthew Hoggard), an erratic but speedy tearaway (Steve Harmison) and a fill-in medium-pacer (Anthony McGrath, another debutant). With last year's runfest against Sri Lanka in mind, Ashley Giles is there too - but the forecast this time is unlikely to produce the hard flat pitch served up last year.

England's batting has a more settled look, at the top of the order anyway. The tail looks flimsy, but then so does Zimbabwe's bowling attack. Alec Stewart, England's most-capped player, retains his place at the age of 40 as much for the runs he's likely to contribute as for his wicketkeeping excellence: if England didn't have three No. 10s, then Chris Read or James Foster would probably be padding up instead.

But Hussain still has less to worry about than his counterpart, Heath Streak. Streak and Grant Flower are the only survivors of the Zimbabwean team that was walloped at Lord's in 2000, and Flower is the only member of the entire touring party who has scored a Test century. That's a lot of pressure for someone who managed only 18 runs in four completed Test innings on that tour three years ago.

The good news for Streak is that at least some of his batsmen are in form. Stuart Carlisle has started the tour well, and Mark Vermeulen, the opener, spanked a career-best 198 against Sussex last weekend.

Teams
England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain (capt), 5 Robert Key, 6 Alec Stewart (wk), 7 Anthony McGrath, 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Matthew Hoggard, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steve Harmison.

Zimbabwe 1 Mark Vermeulen, 2 Dion Ebrahim, 3 Stuart Carlisle, 4 Grant Flower, 5 Tatenda Taibu (wk), 6 Sean Ervine, 7 Heath Streak (capt), 8 Andy Blignaut, 9 Travis Friend, 10 Raymond Price, 11 Douglas Hondo.