Their original squad looked light in that department with Graeme Swann the only specialist spinner following the decision to disregard roly poly Samit Patel on (lack of) fitness grounds. But Andrew Flintoff's failure to recover quickly enough from knee surgery opened the door to leg-spinner Rashid - a bowler so far deemed surplus to requirements by Yorkshire in this season's domestic Twenty20 Cup yet suddenly catapulted into England's 15.
Rashid, of course, is an all-rounder, and England have plenty of those in the party, despite the absence of Flintoff. Collingwood, Stuart Broad and Swann can all be put in that category, certainly so far as limited-overs cricket is concerned, while Wright, Mascarenhas and Napier would all expect to bat and bowl, given the chance.
But if you had to pick one England player as a likely match-winner, especially against tip-top opponents, it would still be hard to vote against Kevin Pietersen.
True, he has not done much in Twenty20 cricket, but no team would want to be without him and England will be mightily relieved if he comes through tonight's game without problems after admitting that his Achilles injury is almost but not quite a thing of the past.
"I wouldn't say I'm fully fit but I'm definitely improving," said Pietersen, who missed last month's one-day international series against West Indies. "I can't wait to start playing again."
The same can be said for England in general. They have been on a roll, albeit against no-one other than West Indies, with one-day series wins at home and abroad either side of a simple 2-0 Test victory. And there is a mood of confidence about them, mainly because promising players like Bopara, Broad and Jimmy Anderson have risen to the challenge of becoming star performers rather than supporting acts.
"England have not been relying on one or two players and I've absolutely loved that," said Pietersen. "I had enough of the limelight in January (when he lost the captaincy) and have been quite annoyed when people said the likes of Ravi are my rivals to counter the Australians.
"I love his confidence and the way he plays without fear."
