James Anderson will remind England precisely what they were missing at Lord's when he returns for the third npower Test against Sri Lanka at the Rose Bowl.
There was consensus outside the England ranks, and no contradiction from within either, that the tallest attack in Test history struggled in Anderson's injury-enforced absence during the stalemate at HQ.
Sri Lanka appear to have spent much of the interim trying, successfully in the end, to persuade Kumar Sangakkara to return to the captaincy in place of the injured Tillakaratne Dilshan.
England, meanwhile, have been preparing confidently in the knowledge that Anderson will be back in harness.
So it was this afternoon as he demonstrated his apparent well-being after the side strain that ruled him out of Lord's, gearing up in the nets alongside pace colleagues Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett and Steven Finn for Thursday.
Watching from the sidelines while his team-mates failed for so long to find their lines last week was at least as painful, it seems, as the injury which prevented him helping them.
But the general of England's pace attack will be back as the hosts try to close out a 2-0 series victory and retain a theoretical chance of ending the summer ranked the world's number one Test team.
"It's always frustrating when you're injured," he said. "But the guys that have found it most frustrating are the three guys out in the middle."
Should the radar falter again in Southampton, the good news for Broad and Tremlett - Finn is likely to make way - is that the Lancastrian's wise counsel will be immediately to hand.
Anderson himself likes his billing as attack leader.
He said: "Having that extra responsibility means I've got to set the tone when I take the first over.
"I've got to lead from the front and set an example for other people to follow.
"That added responsibility and pressure has helped me become more consistent.
"The bowling attack over the last two or three years have made huge steps in being a really consistent unit.
"We have very rare off days and off matches."
Anderson takes his role as an enabler for others very seriously.
"A lot of it is down to communicating," he said. "We'll be talking to each other as we're bowling.
"If I've got Broady or Chris at mid-off, there's always something being said - whether it's what the ball's doing, what the pitch is doing, what certain batsmen are doing.
"It's all helped us improve over the last couple of years."
England are determined too that they do not allow minds to wander beyond Sri Lanka, to the arrival of India next month.
"We're completely focused on winning this series," said Anderson.
"We want to become number one in the world, and to do that we have to win series and win them by as big a margin as possible.
"If we can win this series 2-0 that's going to be a huge step towards that number one spot - and we'll concentrate on India when they come over here."
Rain robbed Anderson of four overs in Lancashire's abandoned FriendsLife t20 match at Worcester on Sunday. But he still has no doubts his body is ready for a Test match.
"It would have been nice to get some match overs under my belt, because you can never really simulate that intensity from the middle in a net session," he said.
"But I don't think it will affect my fitness this week."
Anderson trained with his team-mates before the start of the second Test, but was never selected in the squad as England played it safe with the type of injury which can be especially worrying for fast bowlers.
"Looking back, it would have been stupid to play and risk doing more damage to it - so it was the right decision," he said.
"If I had had done more damage then it could have been six to eight weeks out. It was right to take that precaution."
It can have done Anderson's ego no harm either to hear his name uttered so often by those wishing he was available.
"Often in the past when I've been injured you get forgotten about," he said.
"It's nice to be talked about and missed."
Sri Lanka will have to get by without Dilshan - who broke his thumb at Lord's - team manager Anura Tennakoon confirmed.
Sangakkara, who resigned the captaincy after this year's World Cup, has appeared reluctant to resume the role.
Tennakoon said: "When he undertook this tour Kumar wasn't officially appointed as vice-captain.
"But in case Dilshan had to come off the field, Kumar would stand in as the captain.
"That didn't mean he was going to captain a Test match from the start.
"Because of Dilshan's injury and being unable to play in the third Test, a situation arose that Kumar had to captain from the start - which, I think, he wasn't really mentally prepared to do.
"But after some talking to him, that it was necessary for him to stand in, Kumar gave it some deep thought and tried to help the side by accepting it," he concluded.
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