Bopara and Pietersen in need of quick repair

Anyone completely mystified by England's Ashes turnaround in performance from their Cardiff nightmare?

You shouldn't be. If the England team was a person, it's middle name would be 'inconsistent'. This is a team that can spend three days hammering South Africa all over Lords before struggling to take three wickets in the last two days. This is a team that can dominate a Test match in India, of all places, for the best part of four days, manage to set a massive total and somehow still lose the game. The negativity and doom-predicting in the press surrounding England's Cardiff performance was premature, a touch foolish and certainly naive.

In any eventuality, England have performed extremely credibly in the first three days at Lords - especially so when you consider just how dominant Australia were last week and how strong their record over England is at this grand old ground. England's openers batted with excellent authority and although the middle order weren't able to replicate that success, the tail wagged, just as it did in Wales, and England had a challenging score.

The attack, so maligned in the first Test, did their jobs perfectly this time, led by the irrepressible James Anderson and galvanised by a frighteningly quick Andrew Flintoff. Having confirmed his inevitable retirement from Tests, Flintoff tore in at the Aussies with controlled fury, touching 95 mph at times and resembling the pumped up, hostile Flintoff of '05. All the pacemen settled into their roles nicely with Stuart Broad improving on his poor show last time out (though he was, again, dreadful towards the end of the innings) and Graham Onions slotting into the fourth seamers role with a nagging and accurate line.

England have batted themselves into a match-winning position and should make up for the multitude of failures to convert winning positions from the last year. Lords against South Africa, Chennai against India, Antigua against the West Indies; three times England have lacked the application to put away the opposition when it matters and it's a criticism that will dog Andrew Strauss' captaincy until he sets it right.

Pretty much every department of the team has stepped up in the wake of the disappointment from the first Test - pretty much, at least. There are concerns over two England batsman and the worries were illustrated nicely today in a turgid afternoon session. Technically, Ravi Bopara and Kevin Pietersen are the two best batsmen in the side but the former has looked a touch out of his depth so far in both games while the latter's once formidable batting has looked scratchy and doubt-ridden.

Of course, there are valid explanations for both drops in form. Bopara is playing his first Ashes series and only recently inherited the much coveted number three position. His place is one that inherits great responsibility and requires great focus and ability under pressure - perhaps the reason Ian Bell and Owais Shah never succeeded there? It's understandable for Bopara to have been slightly overwhelmed by the occasion; anyone who thought he would come out and immediately peel off big hundreds would have been delusional.

He will get better eventually - he's too good a batsman to not. The question is how soon will it be? England need their number three to be scoring runs and having a nervous incumbent is undesirable. While it is crucial for Bopara to be given an extended run in the position, how long before that patience runs out? One suspects he just needs a bit of luck and time at the crease. After all, Michael Vaughan's form was severely questioned after four poor innings in the opening two Tests in '05. His fifth innings? 166 at Old Trafford.

Pietersen, aside from his 69 in the first innings at Cardiff, has looked thoroughly out of sorts. It's doubtless that his much documented Achilles injury is inhibiting his normally free-flowing batting and this is turning out to be a major problem, as anyone who witnessed his slow innings today will attest too. The good thing about Bopara and Pietersen's snail paced partnership today was that it gave them both time to bat long and get accustomed to the game, the opposition and themselves. One suspects that it'll do Bopara (27 off 93) more good than harm. Sure, he was dropped and had moments of fortune but it would have been better than a first ball dismissal. Pietersen will have the break between this Test and the next to assess his injury and recuperate - you'd have to say his fitness is crucial to England's chances of victory.

In fact, the fortunes of both these players are fundamental to England's Ashes campaign. Whether they win at Lords or not, they will not be able to triumph in the series with both Pietersen and Bopara out of nick. England need Pietersen, their best batsman, to be at his paramount and if Bopara keeps getting out cheaply, their top order loses vigour. It's possible for both players to bounce back and, whilst Pietersen has the experience to cope, one can only hope that Bopara is not subjected to the predicable media bombardment of criticism.

Until England get these two to play to their potential, England's hopes for the series are grim. As much as we'd like it, we can't rely on James Anderson with the bat for much longer.

Meanwhile, Simon Hughes has written an excellent piece for The Telegraph on the plight of Pietersen that's definately worthy of your attention and Oliver Brett has penned his thoughts on Bopara in his BBC Sport column.