England captain Andrew Strauss has conceded that with next year's World Cup on the horizon his side do not have long left to find a winning formula in one-day cricket.

Injuries to the likes of Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles and Stephen Harmison have seen Alastair Cook, Jamie Dalrymple and Stuart Broad all handed their one-day internatinal debuts this season.

But even before their fitness problems, England's record in one-day international cricket was poor.

They have won just four of their last 20 one-day internationals and during their current home campaign a 5-0 one-day series defeat against Sri Lanka has been bookended by Twenty20 reverses against both Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

England were on course for yet another defeat, in the opening match of a five-game series against Pakistan in Cardiff on Wednesday, when rain ensured a no-result.

And with their World Cup opener in the Caribbean barely six months away, England are running out of time to find the elusive winning line-up in limited overs cricket.

"The World Cup is not that far away now and you don't want to be experimenting too close to the World Cup," Strauss admitted.

"I think we've got a good mix between youth and experience now, which I think is important because you need that experience to go alongside the younger players - I think we've got the players, it's just a question of performing to the ability we know we have.

"We have been a little bit frustrated at the way we performed against Sri Lanka and we know that now is the time to start putting things right," added the Middlesex batsman, whose side face Pakistan in the second match of the series at his Lord's home ground on Saturday.

"Every game we play between now and then is very important and we've got four more games to go in this series and then the Champions Trophy before the real run-in to the World Cup in the West Indies.

After various flirtations with 'attacking' openers such as Matt Prior and Vikram Solanki, England have reverted to their Test match opening partnership of Strauss and Marcus Trescothick for one-day games.

In the ongoing absence of Vaughan with a knee injury, Ian Bell - who scored a career-best 88 in Cardiff before the weather intervened - has slotted in at No 3.

Although teams such as Sri Lanka, with Sanath Jayasuriya, favour an explosive start to their innings, England believe their more patient approach will ultimately provide a solid platform which will allow dynamic middle-order batsmen Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff to go for their shots.

"We've tried a few combinations," said Strauss. "We were looking at the attacking opener at one stage and we've tried a couple of people in that role and that didn't quite work out for us.

"Maybe we have just gone back to trying to get more of an assured start and setting a platform for the middle-order players.

"Marcus has played that attacking role at the top of the order for a number of years now and done very well and it is not as if the other players at the top of the order can't hit boundaries, but wickets in hand are very, very important in one-day cricket."

He added: "When you have got players like Pietersen and Flintoff in your middle order when he is back you can afford maybe to take a little bit more time at the start.

"That's the theory and when we have played well it has worked exceptionally well and I still believe if we do play to that gameplan and play well we can beat any side in the world."

(Article: Copyright © 2006 AFP)