England will send Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell to Sri Lanka early next month to try to avoid a repeat of the batting fiasco in Test series defeat to Pakistan.

Following the appointment of batting coach Graham Gooch on a full-time contract at the weekend, national selector Geoff Miller confirmed: "We will be sending some of the Test squad to Sri Lanka early, particularly some of those that have not been playing during the ODI series.

"They will be working with Graham and one or two of the coaches and support staff at getting acclimatised and preparing on Sri Lankan wickets."

The fact that they will depart almost immediately after England finish an eight-week, 10-international series against Pakistan reiterates both their determination to get back on track as world number one and the deranged incessantness of the contemporary calendar.

The only specialist Test batsmen not to feature in the surprise ODI whitewash are Strauss and Bell, both of whom looked in dire need of more practice in local conditions in the three-nil Test reverse to Misbah-ul-Haq's men.

Each has his own reasons for wanting to arrest the slide.

After three years of almost uninterrupted success as permanent England captain, Strauss finds himself under unlikely pressure. The left-hander has managed only two centuries in his last 53 attempts, a run that stretches back to the absurd run-fest in the Caribbean in March 2009 that marked his ascendency to the role.

Alastair Cook's success in the just-finished ODI series underlines that a candidate waits in the wings, even if (a) he doesn't want it yet and (b) that reluctance is quite justified by a very low tactical profile on the field to date. One whitewash has followed another for Cook - but the former was five successive heavy defeats in India before Christmas so it seems a bit early to cast him as Macbeth.

In contrast Bell had never been in richer form before the Pakistan series, seemingly fulfilling his extraordinary gifts. The subsequent loss of faith not only by commentators but also by Miller and Andy Flower, who dropped him for the ODIs, tells us two things.

First, he was shockingly, transparently unsettled by the sight of Saeed Ajmal. And second, the stigma of mental softness remains. Bell has always had a credibility mountain to climb after a calamitous 2005 Ashes and subsequent admission that he was scared of Shane Warne. Some evidently think that complex has never gone away; all it needed was a mystery spinner to awaken it.

It is a clever if predictable move by England to get Strauss and Bell out there early. Short on confidence, it can only help both men to get a head-start. But what about those still engaged in the UAE?

Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan have had moderate Test records for some time but no-one doubts their self-confidence. Pietersen, who has been feast and famine in the five-day game, said after his first ODI ton in years: "I don't have to prove points. I just want to enjoy my cricket. "

And despite his own dismal Test series Morgan, who often looks suspect in whites, insisted he would not change his approach: "I think where I've done well in Test cricket is where I've been quite positive and remained quite calm. I'll continue to do it, because it's where I play my best cricket."

In reality it is the cocksure pair whose positions should be under greater scrutiny - averages of 11.16 and 13.66 being scarcely more respectable than Bell's 8.50 in the last Test series and without a miraculous 2011 to copper-bottom things.

On England's last visit to Sri Lanka only three men scored more Test runs than Bell: Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Cook. In that series Ravi Bopara endured an embarrassing start to Test cricket, but he should get a chance at Morgan's expense unless the Irishman is able very quickly to get different results with the same approach.