England's squad announcement on Sunday for the second Test against South Africa looks likely to see the bowling attack which struggled at the Oval given another chance.
A humbling innings defeat in London led to the usual calls for a review of the balance of the side - but this week's LV= County Championship teamsheets would appear to suggest otherwise.
While the pre-series hype surrounded the battle between the two best pace attacks in the world, it was South Africa's fearsome top-order batsmen who hogged the limelight at the Oval as James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan combined for only two wickets.
Steven Finn and Graham Onions are ever-present as threats to the established trio, and were watched by national selector James Whitaker as they went head to head at Chester-le-Street while those who featured at the Oval rested up.
Finn took the new ball for Middlesex as Onions' Durham side crumbled to 102 all out, the rangy paceman taking one wicket in 10 economical pre-lunch overs and returning to claim the last scalp.
Onions responded with one for 36 in 14 overs, figures which did not do justice to the quality of his bowling, but it appears unlikely either will force their way into contention at Headingley.
Nottinghamshire, meanwhile, took to the field without either Broad or spinner Graeme Swann among their number as they bowled out Sussex for 171.
A memory of England's recent past, on-loan Steve Harmison, provided Yorkshire's international pedigree in the absence of Bresnan against Leicestershire, while Anderson's Lancashire are not in action this week.
There has even been some talk of a switch to five specialist bowlers, after Ravi Bopara's return to the side brought only 22 runs and a pair of sloppy dismissals.
The Essex man followed that up with a two-ball duck in Tuesday's Friends Life t20 quarter-final against Somerset and will have no further opportunity to play himself back into form before Sunday's squad announcement, with his side also not in Championship action.
His place appears safe, though - barring second-innings heroics from either Finn or Onions coupled with a surprise selection rethink - after his main rivals for the number six spot were named in the England Lions squad to face Australia A from August 7, the day after the scheduled finish to the Test.
Eoin Morgan, jettisoned after a dismal series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, has been named captain in a squad which also includes Yorkshire's Jonny Bairstow, the man in possession against the West Indies earlier this summer.
