It seems that there is at least one Englishman that has taken positives from England’s diabolical start to their tour of India. Former opening-batsman Marcus Trescothick believes that watching England struggle in the One Day International series has confirmed that he has made the right decision in retiring from the game, writes Thomas Rooney, exclusively for The Village Cricketer.

As we all know, Trescothick hasn’t represented England since September 2006 after suffering with stress-related illness that meant he couldn’t live the life of an international cricketer. He has since released a book about his troubles called ‘Coming Back to Me’ – which is an excellent read for any cricket fan by the way.

The latest revelation from Trescothick though is that he is happy sitting at home ‘drinking a pint of Guinness’ while watching his former team-mates outplayed by their India counterparts in the opening four ODI’s. The Somerset man went onto reveal that since retirement he ‘has been really good’ and that discussing his problems has actually been a ‘humbling experience’.

It is pleasing that Trescothick is happy in his personal life now, however – boy do England miss him on a cricket field. I’m aware that this next couple of paragraphs will have hindsight brushed all over them, but what if Trescothick had never been forced to retire? How differently would England have faired in recent matches? Cricket betting would have been affected, I’m sure of that.

First of all, it is worth noting that he is still only 32 years old and could comfortably be playing for another three of four years. So, in that sense – it’s a crying shame that he has had to call it a day already. This is a man with nearly 6,000 test match and over 4,000 ODI runs to his name, after all.

It is my opinion that England have never been able to replace him – in either form of the game. He was such a significant presence at the top of the order and always gave the innings so much impotence with his aggression in the early overs. When you see Ian Bell scratching around while opening the batting in the 50 over game, it really does make you cast your minds back to the times of Banger.

The cricket odds might even have fancied England’s chances of chasing 190-odd against the Indians on Sunday had Trescothick been in top form. At this moment in time, there is no-one that can have the same impact he used to have. He could turn a game on its head.

It isn’t just the limited overs game that he has been missed though. Yes, Alistair Cook has had a relatively impressive start to his test career, but how many big hundreds has he got to date? How many times has he won a game for England?

Overall, the England team misses Trescothick a great deal. Had he still been able to play for them, he would probably be England captain and be heading towards 10, 000 test match runs. As it is, we have to settle for discussing how important a player he was and how much the current England set-up could do with him at the top of their often frail batting order.