Few would have expected any changes to the side after England came back to win the series in New Zealand, but Paul Collingwood's fitness and the return of Andrew Flintoff may mean more than one at Lord's next week.
Collingwood's injury niggles have forced the selectors to come up with a last-minute plan B ahead of the first npower Test squad announcement on Sunday.
Collingwood is suffering from a lower back problem less than a week before the Lord's contest against the New Zealanders and went for an injection in an ongoing right shoulder injury yesterday evening.
Wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose is troubled with a stiff neck and did not take the field for Warwickshire on the third day of their County Championship match with Derbyshire, as a precaution.
England one-day captain Collingwood has provided a headache in what was otherwise a seemingly straightforward squad selection for a Geoff Miller's new-look panel.
Collingwood, 31, would be an integral part of plans to field Andrew Flintoff in a four-man attack in the series opener.
Although Flintoff is deemed fully fit following a fourth ankle operation, England would not want to flog their prized asset and Collingwood could supplement the bowling load.
So Essex all-rounder Ravi Bopara, who played in every Test in Sri Lanka this winter before the axe fell, will in all probability move back up the pecking order ahead of Owais Shah if England feel a standby is necessary.
England are likely to select all-rounder Flintoff for his form with the ball as he bids to play his first Test since the final 2006-07 Ashes defeat.
Flintoff has looked smooth from the off in his latest comeback and his early-season menace was rewarded with seven wickets in the defeat of Collingwood's Durham at Old Trafford this week.
The 30-year-old has mustered only 68 runs in seven innings for Lancashire this summer, however, twice falling for nought in his latest outing.
That is not the kind of form to merit a place in the top six and he is being lined up to slot back in at number seven, a position in which he has not been selected since the tour of Sri Lanka in 2003-04.
England's established batsmen have hardly been rich in runs themselves, however, with captain Michael Vaughan's lack of a half-century this season of concern and Collingwood in a real rut.
He has scored just 32 in five innings in all forms of cricket so far, leaving him somewhat undercooked.
Nevertheless, Collingwood's most redeeming quality as an international batsman is an ability to tough things out in difficult times and he said: "It's a bonus if you can come out and score hundred after hundred every innings.
"Realistically it's not going to work that way and you come up against difficult conditions.
"Runs would be good to get that confidence going but I'll back myself to go out there and score out in the middle when the time comes.
"I am sure that everybody has got me down as the first one off the team sheet but I am a battler.
"It is disappointing not to score runs but the big ones could be just around the corner."
In the bowling department, all three of the new-look pace trio which manufactured wins in Wellington and Napier earlier this year are expected to be retained in the party which might mean Matthew Hoggard needs to wait to add to his 248 Test victims.
Possible squad: MP Vaughan (captain), AJ Strauss, AN Cook, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, PD Collingwood, RS Bopara, A Flintoff, TR Ambrose (wicketkeeper), SCJ Broad, RJ Sidebottom, MS Panesar, JM Anderson.
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