Sir Ian Botham says England must hand Adam Lyth his debut in the third Test against the West Indies in Barbados, starting on Friday.
The Yorkshire batsman has been waiting in the wings for the opening two Tests while England have experimented with Jonathan Trott alongside skipper Alastair Cook at the top of the order.
Trott, normally a No 3, has struggled, scoring 69 runs in his four innings at an average of 15.75, and, although he played in a winning side in Grenada, his technique has come in for serious criticism.
Botham insists it is an experiment that has failed and feels England need to give Lyth some Test-match experience ahead of a daunting summer of Test cricket against New Zealand and Australia.
The Sky Sports commentator said: "England have an opportunity here to play one of the young guys in this final Test. I don't think we need to see anything more from Jonathan Trott in the openers’ position.
"He looks very fidgety at the crease, he doesn't look relaxed. Two noughts, a four and a 50 hardly warrants us all jumping up and down and saying 'of course he should be playing'.
"I'm surprised they picked him in the first place. Adam Lyth must be wondering what he has to do to play and also Trott didn't open for England before, so why's he opening now? I don't quite understand their thinking.
"I cannot believe, seriously, that England think Trott is going to be opening the batting against Australia. I don't see him playing.”
Lyth enjoyed a prolific season last year scoring 1,487 runs at an average of 67 as Yorkshire won the County Championship title and Botham feels he deserves his chance to start.
Moeen Ali, who opened the batting in England’s ill-fated World Cup campaign, returned to the side in Grenada but Botham feels the left-handed Yorkshireman is the only realistic candidate to partner captain Cook at the Kensington Oval.
The former England skipper added: "I would go with Lyth at the top of the order and I might want to bring another bowler in, but that's dependent on the wicket. There could be an argument for (Adil) Rashid to play, there are lots of different ways they can go."
He also insisted that, despite their victory in Grenada, the majority of England’s bowling attack are still battling for their places in the Ashes series.
He added: "The only bowler who is a nailed-on certainty for a place in the starting XI at the moment is Jimmy Anderson and I'd say that was about it at the moment. I think the rest of the attack is very flexible, and it will have to be at some point this summer, as there is no way these guys can play every single game, otherwise someone is going to pick up an injury.
"There is an opportunity, against a weakened West Indies side to play someone against them to give them a little bit of a feel for what's coming up."
Beefy's Bets
England win - 8/11
James Anderson most England wickets 1st Inns - 11/4
Joe Root most England runs 1st Inns - 4/1
England win and Root most 1st Inns runs - 8/1
Watch the third Test between West Indies and England live on Sky Sports 2 from 2.30pm on Friday.