Injuries mean England may have to select an inexperienced pace attack in their ICC World Twenty20 squad.
Four players offering a seam-bowling option have hurt themselves since the provisional 30-man squad was announced at the start of this month.
When the selectors on Wednesday name the 15 who have made the cut, those hopefuls who bowl seam-up and are fit therefore have a much improved chance of remaining in the running to play in the Caribbean.
Among those who could make the trip on that score - under Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood - are recent Test recruits Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn, along with Ajmal Shahzad, Peter Trego, Chris Woakes and Sajid Mahmood.
Bresnan and Shahzad were in England's last Twenty20 team, against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates and so are the most obvious candidates to help complete a squad of pace bowlers which seems sure to include Stuart Broad, James Anderson - as long as he is thought fit enough after resting his painful knee for the past two months - and all-rounder Luke Wright.
Those who have succumbed to injury in recent weeks and, to varying extents, are therefore likely to be considered unavailable are Durham seamers Graham Onions and Liam Plunkett, Hampshire captain Dimitri Mascarenhas and Nottinghamshire's Ryan Sidebottom.
If those injuries have perhaps simplified the staffing of the pace-bowling contingent, other areas of discussion may take a little longer for the selectors.
In Craig Kieswetter and Matt Prior, they may be able to find room for two wicketkeepers - with either capable of playing as a specialist batsman but the former by far the more likely to do so, especially because his limited-overs exploits so far have convinced many he is England's best man at the top of the order.
Incumbents Joe Denly and Jonathan Trott are vulnerable to others' claims to that position.
Chief among those aspirants to the opening slot is possibly the uncapped Michael Lumb, who played a match-winning hand for the Lions against England in the UAE and has since impressed at the Indian Premier League too.
Ravi Bopara could also be in the reckoning and will doubtless be scenting a recall, along with back-up middle-order batsman Owais Shah.
Both, though, could have done with stronger starts to this year's IPL - a remark which also perhaps applies to Eoin Morgan, who is nonetheless a sure-fire selection after a clutch of devastating and match-winning contributions already from England's Irishman.
The most intriguing part of the equation is how much emphasis to place on spin in the Caribbean.
With two matches played on the same pitch daily, it became clear in last summer's World Twenty20 in England that spin - or lack of pace at any rate - was often a serious weapon.
England already know they are 'second on' in each of their two group matches at Guyana's Providence Stadium - and the evidence of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean was that relatively slow surfaces were the norm.
The medium-pace options who could also profit in such conditions include Collingwood and Bopara. Graeme Swann is the number one spinner, of course. But the number and identity of those chosen to accompany him - all four possibles are short on international experience - will be a tough call.
James Tredwell is at the front of the queue, but if England decide they want more variety - or extra batting cover from Bopara - they could always sacrifice Prior.
Possible final England squad of 15 for the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies: PD Collingwood (captain), JM Anderson, TT Bresnan, SCJ Broad, C Kieswetter (wkt), MJ Lumb, EJG Morgan, KP Pietersen, MJ Prior (wkt), A Shahzad, GP Swann, JC Tredwell, PD Trego, IJL Trott, LJ Wright.
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