England have named their final 15-man World Cup squad this week, and I have to say we have a fantastic squad.

If you look at the calibre of players who have missed out, it’s phenomenal really, isn’t it? We are in a good place and that’s really important.

What we wanted was momentum coming into the tournament and that’s exactly what we have got so far. It’s crucial to have momentum and confidence going into a World Cup.

And I’m sure confidence will be high after the one-off win in Ireland and the 4-0 series victory over Pakistan that followed ahead of two more warm-up fixtures, against Australia on Saturday and Afghanistan on Monday, before England begin their World Cup campaign against South Africa next Thursday.

Pakistan are a good outfit and we have made mince meat of their bowlers, scoring more than 300 runs in all the one-day matches, apart from The Oval clash which was rained off.

When we saw Pakistan’s bowlers at Leicestershire, when we played them in a tour match, we were really impressed with what they have. But England were so aggressive and proactive that we blew them away. Our depth in the batting line-up gave the opening guys a licence to play positively.

Much of the talk ahead of the tournament has been around the inclusion of all-rounder Jofra Archer, despite the Sussex man having only played in three one-day internationals for England.

To be fair, the England and Wales Cricket Board have almost changed their qualification rules for the Barbados-born man. He is a world-class bowler. Obviously, he has a lot to work on with his batting but he is a world-class bowler.

He can be the X-Factor which gets us over the line which is what it’s about.

The 24-year-old has been clocked bowling at speeds in excess of 90mph but the thing with him is his action is so high, and he is so tall in his action, that you don’t see any change in pace through his action.

He hits so many people on the head and beats them for pace because they don’t see an effort ball coming.

Normally, you see people bend their back a bit more or their arms are going a little bit more, but he is so consistent in his action so it’s so hard to tell when he is bowling that effort ball which is a yard quicker.

Along with Archer, England have Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Cumbrian Ben Stokes, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes as all-round options.

That’s what good teams have. That’s what any coach wants, the more all-rounders, the better. But the batsmen need to bat in their role and be really specific in their role, which is really important, as well.

Stokes, who started his career at Cockermouth Cricket Club, seemed to find a bit of form with the bat in the Pakistan series. He is in a good place.

We are confident and I’m pleased that they have stuck with Plunkett, as well.

The likes of David Willey and Joe Denly can certainly consider themselves to have been unlucky to miss out, simply through the sheer quality in the squad, but they could still have a part to play if we pick up any injuries.

They will still be in the selectors’ eye and they will still be watching them, even though they are not in the squad. They could still make a match-winning contribution.

Starting a home World Cup campaign, England will kick-off against South Africa, which certainly won’t be an easy game. But we have the batting line-up to blow sides away. Don’t get me wrong, they are a decent side. Quinton de Kock is a serious cricketer and, up front, he can be deadly and change the game. 

Everybody has a game changer but, looking at our squad, we have four or five game changers, if not more. 

Joe Root needs to be the glue to put our innings together, or certainly one from the top order needs to bat for a while. The top three are capable of batting for 35 or 40 overs.

Even though we have never won a global 50-over trophy, despite making the final in 1979, 1987 and 1992, I fancy us this time, I really do.

I think New Zealand will be there or thereabouts, they are a good outfit and reached the final of the competition four years ago in Australia where they lost by seven wickets to the hosts. If Australia get runs, they could be up there again, as well. Anybody can do it on the day but we have momentum and confidence, so we are in a good place.

While the conditions should, hopefully, suit the English players, people like New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult can get a team four or five wickets down in the first 10 overs in these kind of conditions.

If he manages to do that, then the opposition are really playing catch up.

But, at this particular time, I just think England have more depth than everyone else.