There was always going to be a sense of anti-climax at this point of the season unless England won the World Twenty20 series and I could never see that happening.

So after the Test and one-day series wins over the West Indies, England's exit at the Super Eight stage is a come down but hardly an unexpected one.

England look an average team on paper - certainly in comparison to the likes of South Africa and Sri Lanka - and in the end that's how they played.

Pietersen: scintillating strokeplay needs support

You certainly couldn't fault their effort and commitment; they certainly gave us some memorable moments but if you take the emotion out of their campaign then two wins from five matches is pretty much what we expected.

Crooked

I don't think the squad has improved during the tournament. The batting remains overly-reliant on Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Bopara and, to a lesser extent, Owais Shah while the balance of the side, with Paul Collingwood at five and James Foster at six, looks crooked without Andrew Flintoff. England have a long tail and the West Indies exposed it on Monday.

However, there were certainly some plus points along the way. Graeme Swann continues to impress and, for someone coming into his first senior tournament, Adil Rashid bowled well.

He wasn't afraid to think on his feet and showed he had the ability to land it on the spot under pressure; Dwayne Bravo had just whacked him for six when he pushed one out of the front of the hand to bowl Kieron Pollard and leave the Windies on 41-4. From that point they did well to get home.

Some people seem to be under the impression that the Duckworth-Lewis system favoured the West Indies last night; they argue that scoring 80 runs off nine overs with 10 wickets in the bank should have been a cakewalk, but I disagree.

It's true that there is no ideal solution to dealing with rain-interrupted matches but Duckworth-Lewis is certainly the least-worst system available!

We're stuck with it until someone comes up with a formula that makes it fairer and certainly no England supporter should argue that England deserved to go through at the Oval.

Pressure

The current whisper doing the rounds is that if England play two spinners in the first Ashes Test at Cardiff, it is going to be Swann and Rashid. Time will tell if that is the case but if it is so, then it won't bode well for Monty Panesar's career plan because you'd have to think that there is more to come from Rashid.

Similarly, James Foster is in the public eye now too. Everyone's talking about his glove-work and Matt Prior will be thinking 'I'm under pressure when I come back'.

Foster's glove-work is exceptional - it has been for five years; every time I've watched him I've been of the mind that he is head-and-shoulders above every other wicketkeeper in English cricket behind the stumps.

His stumping of India's Yuvraj Singh and Bravo proved that is the case. Batting on the slog is not his strength - he's more of a pusher and a nurdler - but he's on Prior's shoulder.

I still don't think Collingwood is a natural captain; I suspect one of the reasons he took the job was because he was fearful for his place.

If Robert Key had come in as captain, then someone would have had to give way and it might well have been him.

I don't think he did badly; he held his nerve when England got tied down against India, a match England went on to win, but he didn't produce when we needed a power player in the middle order.

Shah didn't fire either and the sad truth is that there seems to be chaos in the ranks every time Pietersen goes and the boundaries dry up.

Danger

It's essential that English players now recognise the way the game is going and how important power-hitting is.

It's not everything by any means. The likes of Mahela Jayawardene and Shivnarine Chanderpaul have shown it is possible to milk the bowling so there is room for the touch player.

But you do need power players. You can't have only one or two in a team - you need someone in that middle order who is a danger to the opposition and can change the game in an instant.

That is something that England must address and focus on at academy level so the players coming through are capable of playing the big shots.

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