The Stone Roses have done it. So have the Inspiral Carpets. And now the Happy Mondays have put aside their musical differences, Zimmer frames and freedom passes and announced their reformation along with a clutch of new tour dates and festival appearances.

Critics will doubtless claim these bands have no chance of recapturing their former glory and that reforming is a cynical ploy to rake in some dough – and they’re probably right. But as I peeked out from behind the sofa and watched on in anguish as England turned what should have been a very gettable run-chase into the equivalent of an ascent on Everest without oxygen, Sherpas or a discernible plan, I pondered how reformation, renewal and even resurrection would look if applied to the current England batting unit.

Even Andy Flower confessed that England’s batsmen look all at sea against quality spin in Asia, and the stats support him. In matches against India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Asia, Kevin Pietersen averages just 29.54 from 13 Tests, Ian Bell 31.60 from the same number of games and Andrew Strauss 35.35 from nine Tests – with only Alastair Cook (40.64 from nine Tests) of the current top six having a creditable average. Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan are experiencing their first taste of Test cricket in Asia on this tour – it’s not been a pleasant one.

For Morgan it has proved particularly painful, with Geoff Boycott commenting that, “when he comes in, I daren’t go for a pee because I know I’ll miss him”.  England’s limited-overs supremo might suffer the axe after his struggles but his replacement Ravi Bopara faced a nightmare of his own against Sri Lanka’s spinners in 2007, leaving England with a headache ahead of two Asian tours before the turn of the year with no aspirin in sight.

So, back to our theme of reformation, renewal and resurrection. Given the chance, which former England batsmen would we restore to their prime to take the place of England’s top six for the third Test in Dubai and the rest of their Asian adventures in 2012? Having waved the magic wand, I’ve come up with the following:

1) Marcus Trescothick
Test record in Asia against India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan: 15 Tests, 1,100 runs @ 37.93
Other England openers have better records in Asia, but the Somerset skipper’s ability to attack the spinners proved a boon on England’s last triumphant tours of Asia to Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2000/01 and would surely counter the inertia witnessed in the second innings in Abu Dhabi.

2) Geoff Boycott
8 Tests, 706 runs @ 58.83
Picking Boycs would not only get him out of the commentary box, but his dour accumulation and the fact he is a right-hander would be the perfect complement to Trescothick’s aggression. In any case, he’s told TMS listeners he could take runs off Saeed Ajmal and co with a stick of rhubarb; imagine what he could do with a bat!

3) David Gower
16 Tests, 1,138 runs @ 56.90
Starred against Pakistan’s legspin maestro Abdul Qadir in the 80s and another former great who could teach the current crop a thing or two about batting positively against high-class spin with a top-drawer sweep shot and the ability to play the ball as late as possible.

4) Ken Barrington
8 Tests, 903 runs @ 90.30
No England batsman in history can match his average or tally of four hundreds in Asia and, like Misbah-ul-Haq, Barrington understood that if you are going to block, you need to do so with purpose so as not to relinquish the initiative to the bowler.

5) Graham Thorpe
10 Tests, 821 runs @ 48.29
The Surrey left-hander mastered Muralitharan in his own backyard and almost single-handedly led England to a famous series win in 2001. When boundaries were scarce, Thorpe understood the importance of maneuvering singles to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

6) Ian Botham
9 Tests, 599 runs @ 49.91, 35 wickets @ 26.31
Not only would his bowling ensure England could always play two spinners in Asia, but he’d also have the opportunity to reprise one of the greatest all-round performances in the history of the game. In the Golden Jubilee Test of 1980 against India, Beefy took 6-58 and 7/48, and smashed 114 for good measure, as England won by an innings.

Whimsy though this is, this top six and the four-man bowling attack that performed so well in Abu Dhabi would finally leave England with a team capable of beating Asia’s big three in their own backyard. In their absence England fans will have to put up with more chastening defeats before the year has run its course unless the current batting unit can find an answer to their spin demons.

David Green is the warped mind behind The Reverse Sweep cricket blog and regards Douglas Jardine as his ultimate cricket hero. You can follow David on Twitter @TheReverseSweep

Click here to read David’s account of Pakistan’s rollercoaster ride

To win, simply click here to answer the following question.

*THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED*

When not playing for England, for which county does Ravi Bopara play?

A) Middlesex

B) Essex

C) Surrey

Entries close on December 12 at 12 noon GMT. 

Having started his tenure as ODI skipper in Alastair Cook in superb fashion, the England opener has been subjected to the rather harsher side of captaincy in the world champions’ backyard.

Cook is by no means the first captain to suffer at the hands of India on their home patch – in fact no England captain since David Gower in 1985 can boast a limited-overs series win on Indian soil – but the tourists have been brought back down to earth with an almighty thud and questions have been raised about the long-term future of several players in the limited-overs set-up.

While the Test squad appears set in stone, the ODI squad remains anything but and several of the 15-man touring party still have plenty to do to prove they have what it takes to make the grade as international cricketers. Here’s a look at a three of those names that are starting to feel the heat…

Craig Kieswetter

The Somerset keeper-batsman has shown glimpses of his undoubted talent but 27 matches into his ODI career he is yet to fully convince at international level, having reached three figures on just one occasion, and that effort was against a weak Bangladesh attack. With Jonny Bairstow in the side and not keeping wicket, is there still space for Kieswetter?

Ravi Bopara

Bopara’s innings of 96 against India at Lord’s was seen as a potential watershed moment in his stop-start England career but he’s failed to kick-on in India, with no significant score to show for his efforts. His useful dibbly-dobblers have kept Ian Bell out of the side to date in this series but is it worth sacrificing arguably England’s most talented batsman for the sake of a few overs here and there?

Jade Dernbach

The Surrey paceman has found the going particularly tough on the subcontinent, taking just one wicket for 168 in three matches before losing his place in Mumbai. Having made such an impressive start to his international career, this tour has highlighted that Dernbach still has a lot to learn at this level. Will he learn from this experience and fight his way back, or were we a little hasty in labelling him ‘the next big thing’?

All Out Cricket has teamed up sports forum 606 v2 to discuss the game with thousands of like-minded cricket fans. To debate this article and hundreds of other topics, check out 606 v2 today.

It was a frustrating day for all concerned on day one of the fourth Test at The Oval, with only 26 overs of play possible before rain curtailed proceedings. Frustrating for England’s batsmen, who were stopped in their tracks by persistent drizzle in gloomy south London. Frustrating for a capacity crowd, who had turned out in their droves to see the newly crowned top ranked Test nation in action only to witness the very dampest of squibs. And presumably frustrating for an Indian bowling attack that produced another insipid display and barely managed to break the 80mph barrier as Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook eased their way to 75-0 by lunch.

One man more frustrated than most will have been Ravi Bopara, who must have felt time slipping away as he watched the rainfall with his place on England’s winter tours hanging by a thread. He was a beneficiary of England’s commitment to consistency in selection when he was selected for the third Test at Edgbaston after Jonathan Trott was ruled out with a shoulder injury – and it is hard to criticise that policy given the fantastic results it has produced – but he surely needs to make a significant contribution at The Oval to remain in his role as ‘batsman in waiting’ with a host of talented youngsters breathing down his neck.

Statistics weren’t in Bopara’s favour when it came to choosing Trott’s replacement. A Championship batting average of 40.84 against mediocre second division bowling attacks doesn’t compare favourably with his nearest rivals Leicestershire’s James Taylor (54.55) or Jonny Bairstow at Yorkshire (49.88), who have both also produced outstanding performances for the Lions this season. But Geoff Miller and the panel of selectors stuck with their ‘next cab off the rank’ policy and, perhaps swayed by the commitment to the cause he demonstrated by turning down a lucrative IPL contract in April, recalled the Essex right-hander for his first Test match since England’s capitulation at Headingley in the 2009 Ashes.

In truth, he was on a hiding to nothing in Birmingham coming to the crease as he did at 596-4. Any runs he did score would have been cheapened by the match situation while a low score would add further weight to claims that he doesn’t cut the mustard at Test level. Things couldn’t have gone much worse for Ravi. While Taylor was further enhancing his reputation with a century in a limited-overs fixture against Sri Lanka A, Bopara was rapped on the pads by Amit Mishra and sent on his way for just seven.

With Trott still not fit to resume at The Oval, Bopara has another opportunity to prove his Test credentials – it’s no longer England’s style to chop and change from one match to the next – but he is running out of chances. At 26, it would be premature to call time on Bopara’s Test career even if he fails in this Test but with younger men like Taylor and Bairstow pressing hard and exciting prospects such as Ben Stokes and Alex Hales waiting in the wings, he needs runs, and he needs them now.

In his 11 Tests matches to date Bopara has only passed 35 three times and on each occasion he’s gone on to register a century. If he gets a start against India, he may well need to continue that record to book his seat on the plane this winter.

Consistency was the name of the game for England’s selectors when Geoff Miller announced the squad for the first Test in Cardiff, beginning on Thursday.

Eoin pipped Ravi at the post for the No.6 slot (we agree, plenty don’t) after producing a timely 193 for England Lions against Sri Lanka last week in his first first-class innings since December, and just his second in nine months.

Bopara can consider himself a touch unfortunate to miss out after turning down a lucrative IPL contract and scoring consecutive Championship centuries against Glamorgan and Derbyshire, but a first-class average this season of 45.09 against modest Division Two attacks mounted a strong case, but not a compelling one.

Meanwhile, Morgan’s been having sporadic slogs for Kolkata Knight Riders with minimal success (137 runs in nine innings) and admitted he was ready to return to the IPL should he miss out in the race to replace Paul Collingwood, leading many to suggest he had slipped down the pecking order.

But in his still-fledgling career the maverick left-hander has shown an appetite for the big occasion, as demonstrated in his Test audition at Derby against the tourists, and England stuck with their next-cab-off-the-rank policy, giving Morgan the nod after the Irishman acted as batting back-up during the Ashes. He will now surely be given a whole series to nail down his Test spot before India arrive.

Steven Finn is another who has benefited from a selection policy with consistency at its heart after a mixed bag of a winter that saw him dropped from England’s Ashes XI, despite leading the wicket-taking charts, after proving expensive and struggling for fitness. The Middlesex beanpole held off competition from Ajmal Shahzad, Graham Onions and Surrey paceman Jade Dernbach but is likely to miss the final cut, with Anderson, Tremlett, Broad and Swann set to form a four-man attack.

Sri Lanka are performing the role of warm-up act before Dhoni and his team of world-beaters swagger into town, but England will do well not to underestimate a side ranked No.4 in the ICC Test Rankings and containing some of the world game’s great talents.

Last time Sri Lanka toured England back in 2006, Muttiah Muralitharan inspired Sri Lanka to victory at Trent Bridge to draw the Test series 1-1 before the tourists dished out a 5-0 whitewash in the ODIs. The great man is now gone, along with fellow stalwarts Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas, and England rightly start the three-match series as favourites, but Andrew Strauss will be expecting a much sterner test than England encountered on home soil against Bangladesh and Pakistan last summer.

With crowd pleasers such as Tillakaratne Dilshan, Ajantha Mendis, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jaywardene in their ranks, whatever the score, it should make for some entertaining viewing.