England appear to be taking on a West Indies side in complete disarray in the second Test at Chester-le-Street, starting today.

Less than a couple of months ago the men from the Caribbean were on a high after unexpectedly beating us in the series back home and skipper Chris Gayle was being hailed as the man largely responsible for an overdue rise in fortunes.

Now, Gayle is talking about giving up the captaincy in the near future and suggesting he wouldn't miss Test cricket if he wasn't involved. He is getting distracted by issues off the field, and when that happens things can only go one way.

If he has been quoted correctly then I don't believe Gayle should be leading the side any more. His late arrival for the tour, just a couple of days before it started, because of Indian Premier League commitments with Kolkata Knight Riders hardly set a good example.

The tour was arranged at short notice after Sri Lanka pulled out, so I can understand that there would have been some contractual issues with the IPL.

But, even if Gayle had come over here four or five days before it started, it would have shown some commitment to the tour. It may be time for him to step aside and let someone like Ramnaresh Sarwan take over.

Things look to be falling apart for West Indies and Gayle is showing no sign of wanting to be part of putting them together again. It's amazing how quickly things can nosedive after what seemed to be something of a new dawn in Caribbean cricket.

For England, the first Test could hardly have gone better, with Ravi Bopara and Graham Onions in particular justifying their selections in a big way, and the balance of power between the two teams has shifted enormously in a matter of weeks.

I knew from the way Onions bowled against me when Durham played at Taunton recently that he was a yard quicker than last season and right on top of his game.

Ravi scoring a big hundred at No 3 was even more encouraging because England desperately need someone to make that position their own ahead of the Ashes battles.

We have to be a bit careful to keep feet on the ground because, for the reasons I have stated, West Indies are not the greatest opposition at the moment.

After the doom and gloom of the winter, one victory over them has everyone crying, 'Bring on Australia now', and we need to just calm down and build on what happened at Lord's.

At least we are moving in the right direction and giving ourselves a bit of momentum. I think we are pretty close to the side who will face Australia, although I would anticipate one or two changes.

If Freddie Flintoff can get fit he will be recalled, probably at the expense of Tim Bresnan. And if Steve Harmison bowls well for Durham, I can see him playing a part in the Ashes battles.

It might came down to a choice between Harmison and Onions in a pace attack also featuring James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Flintoff. Onions is the form man and I would put him ahead of Ryan Sidebottom at the moment.

With things as they are, I think England should not only be looking to win the second Test against West Indies, but to win it quickly in three or four days.

I hope we smash them again to put the record straight for what happened in the winter when I didn't feel we had the best of luck in the Test matches.

On the Somerset CCC front, things are much looking more rosy in one-day cricket than four-day after our early games, something of a contrast from last season.

I had the chance to captain the side against Scotland on Monday because Justin Langer had a throat infection and, while I found it hard work making a century and then keeping switched on in the field, it was good to be part of another resounding Friends Provident Trophy win.

You have to be constantly thinking as skipper in one-day cricket and I enjoy that challenge. It was our fourth win in as many group games and I think five ought to be enough to qualify for the quarter-finals, maybe six to be sure of a home tie.

We play Warwickshire at Taunton today and the way we are performing, I think we have to aim to win all eight group matches. James Hildreth's 151 against Scotland was our third big hundred in the competition already and Peter Trego again came in down the order to score at two a ball for his 74 not out.

We need to assess all areas of our County Championship cricket after the defeat by Notts at Trent Bridge. While there is a perception that our bowling isn't strong enough, it was the batting that let us down in the first innings of that match, as it had done in the first innings against Durham at Taunton.

I don't think we are giving enough mental application to our four-day cricket at the moment and that has to change. We have talked about it, but although we fought back well in both games where our batting collapsed, we didn't give ourselves a chance to win.

We have the capability and the talent to win big Championship matches, but we are putting ourselves behind the eight ball and then playing catch-up, which makes it very hard work.