The England squad announced for the First Test against West Indies at Lord's next week looks a bit light in the batting department to me.

I think the selectors are looking for a bit more from Ian Bell and Michael Vaughan, so I half-expected them to be left out, even though I reckon one of them will feature again at Test level as the summer progresses.

That also applies to Steve Harmison if he stays fit. I reckon we will need him at some point, although much will depend on how the two new pace bowlers in the squad take their chance.

It's the batting that concerns me, with wicketkeeper Matt Prior apparently earmarked to go in at six. He is a decent player, but I would prefer to see him at seven.

The decision to put Ravi Bopara at three is interesting. I see him as a very bright prospect, who has got himself into the one-day team nicely and has been doing well in the IPL.

He deserves a chance in Test matches and I am happy to see the selectors show faith in his ability to bat as high as three. But it is the middle-order which looks a bit fragile.

Of course, a fit Freddie Flintoff batting at seven would strengthen it considerably. As it is, I would like to see a more specialist batsman than Graeme Swann or Stuart Broad in that position. Broad is a good No 8 in my opinion.

Of the newcomers to the bowling ranks, Durham's Graham Onions has good pace and hits the bat hard. I've not faced him a massive amount, so I can't offer any other comment.

Yorkshire's Tim Bresnan has been a good county bowler for some years, banging the pitch hard and swinging the ball nicely. He also gets a few runs in the lower order, which is always a handy extra skill to have.

In recent years the Lord's pitches have been good to bat on, so both players will have their work cut out if they play. You generally need something a bit special to bowl sides out there, but if conditions favour swing we should have a very good chance.

I thought England would win the Test series in West Indies during the winter and I will be very disappointed if we don't come out on top with home advantage, building some confidence for the Ashes battles in the process.

Moving on to Somerset CCC matters, there was much interest in the County Championship debut of David Stiff against Durham this week after he had taken nine wickets in the victory over Cardiff UCCE on a pretty placid wicket at Taunton Vale.

I faced him a lot in the nets during my England career, particularly at Lord's, because he used to go there to work with bowling coach Troy Cooley, so I can vouch for the fact that he can bowl some nasty deliveries.

Pace bowlers 6ft 5ins tall are like gold dust to counties because they have the physique to offer something a bit different. The raw material is certainly there to work on with David and he has been given until the end of May to prove himself worthy of a longer contract.

It must have been nerve-racking for him bowling against Durham, with the game being screened live on Sky TV, but he still produced some lively bowling, which troubled top-order batsmen.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a very good first day against the county champions, spilling some catches and not really taking advantage of a more bowler-friendly pitch than is the norm at Taunton.

Much better was the Friends Provident Trophy win over Kent at the County Ground last Sunday, which gave us maximum points from our first two games in the competition.

Everyone chipped in to an excellent team performance. I thought we might be better chasing a target this season, but we lost the toss and were put in, so we had to show we could perform in that position too. It was a great wicket to bat on and after we lost Craig Kieswetter early on, we really capitalised. I probably played as well as I have done this season to get a quick 70. The Kent bowlers pitched it up and the surface was so good that I really felt I could lay into the ball.

Zander de Bruyn has made a terrific start in the Friends Provident with 73 not out at Warwickshire and an unbeaten 71 last Sunday. He has the role of holding things together in the middle of our innings so that players like Peter Trego can come in with the licence to hit out.

Our plan is for Justin Langer to bat at five in one-day cricket this season and it's really important we get the blend right in our top order. As it happened, Justin wasn't needed to bat at all against Kent, and I'm sure he will be happy enough if that proves the case in other games. Trego was playing against his former club and played the sort of innings that stamps him as a special talent. If he can develop a role higher up the order and be consistent, we will be a very dynamic team to play against. Power plays are so important in the 50-over competitions and Pete made massive use of them in making his 73 not out off 36 balls.

He hit five sixes and all of them would have been sixes on most grounds. Due to bat at No 7, he was promoted because the game was reduced to 38 overs by rain and certainly made the most of the opportunity.

We have learned over the years that Taunton is a very hard ground to bowl second on, but we have worked hard over the winter and some of the plans we made are starting to be executed.

The importance of fielding well to support the bowlers was stressed and I managed to get Robert Key early on with a special catch at short mid-wicket. He came down the pitch to hit a full toss and I just threw out my right hand and felt the ball stick.

Little things like that can alter the course of a one-day game. We are feeling good about our one-day cricket again and will take a lot of confidence into next Monday's FPT match against Middlesex at Bath.

Interview: Richard Latham