Before South Africans the world over have a heart attack, I'm in no way suggesting that Jonathan Trott is in anywhere near the same bracket as Jacques Kallis, who is undisputedly one of the game's best batsmen. However, there seems to be a canny similarity between the two players.

Aside from the fact that the two learnt their trades just a few miles apart, Trott and Kallis are perhaps a rare breed of cricketer, who one feels could make 80 in an ODI and still cost his team the game.

Trott's pedestrian nature extends beyond his heavily annoying insistence on constantly retaking his guard. The Warwickshire man's knack of plodding along in limited-overs cricket is incredibly irksome. But what makes Trott even more frustrating is that he often does this while on his way to an innings top score.

Perhaps it's the all-or-nothing bludgeoning of Twenty20 competition that has made one expect batsmen to rocket along in any limited-overs game, but while Trott has scored five fifties and one hundred in eleven ODIs (impressive stats, no doubt), only twice has he managed to achieve a strike-rate of over 80.

With Trott at the crease, even if he has racked up a half-century, you're never quite sure if he's going to win or lose the game for your team. And it's here that the comparison with Kallis comes in.

For much of his career Kallis has been accused of batting too slowly to be a great one-day player, and a career strike-rate of 72.72 lends some credence to this. But in between all the dot balls the South African let rip with shots of such brilliance that you couldn't plausibly imagine not having him in your team.

The trick to having Kallis as a successful member of a one-day unit was having players around him that scored at a quicker pace, ensuring that the overall accumulation of runs didn't fall behind what was required. To some, this made Kallis a limited player, and the same can be said for Trott.

It's okay to score 94 runs in 130 balls if you have Eoin Morgan at the other end blasting the ball to all corners of the park. But, as can be seen in England's shock defeat to Bangladesh earlier this year, if the man at the other end isn't scoring then a strike-rate of 72 is not enough.

It's important to note that in recent times Kallis has revolutionised his game, maintained the same class, and added a bit of punch. In the past two years the 34-year-old has upped his strike-rate to 87.16 and his average to 55.86. The change has seen Kallis not only cement his spot in the 50-over side but also in the Twenty20 team, something which at one time would have been unheard of.

Moving forward Trott would do well to follow Kallis' lead by adding a little pace to his game. His long-term survival in the England one-day team depends on it.