England's selectors will settle on a final 15-man World Cup squad on Monday, with the fates of David Willey, Joe Denly and potential wildcard Liam Dawson to the fore.
Just one of those three seems likely to make the cut, with deliberations between national selector Ed Smith, his deputy James Taylor and the captain-coach axis of Trevor Bayliss and Eoin Morgan determining who gets the good news.
Of those who were named in a preliminary squad last month, Alex Hales has already been cast aside for off-field transgressions, replaced by James Vince as the supplementary batsman, while Willey looks likeliest to pay for Jofra Archer's easy transition to the international stage.
The Yorkshire left-armer has been a feature of the limited-overs set-up throughout the past four years but, with Archer now a certain pick and Tom Curran seemingly improving by the match, he needed to make a major statement in Sunday's fifth and final one-day international against Pakistan.
England won by 54 runs at Headingley to take the series 4-0 but Willey's return of one for 55 in nine overs was not the kind that shifts the narrative.
Denly watched from the sidelines in Leeds and must be wondering about his own fate following a peripheral role in the campaign.
Dawson has not featured since a side strain in Sri Lanka last October but the slow left-armer has performed consistently at domestic level and has featured in management discussions as a potential rival for Denly.
He is comfortably the better spin bowler but lacks Denly's ability to cover any batting slot in the order. The verdict, when it comes, may be a tight one.
One bowler who can surely rest easy is Chris Woakes, who bagged five for 54 in a match-winning cause on Sunday, but even he is not immune to the odd pang of nervous tension.
"Everyone will be looking at their phones tomorrow," said the Warwickshire seamer.
"Everyone will be wary of that phone call. Even if you feel like you've got a good chance to being in the squad, until you hear it from selectors' mouths, it's not quite set in stone.
"As a player you're still probably a little bit on edge, particularly with this 16 and 17 players because everyone has performed at some point.
"It's a tricky decision for selectors and I'm glad I'm not having to make that decision, but it has to be done."
Speaking after the fifth ODI, which saw England set a new ground record of 351 for nine before dismissing the tourists for 297, captain Eoin Morgan admitted he was still unsure about who would miss out.
🗣 @Eoin16: "The performances have made it even more difficult. A couple of guys will be disappointed" ➡️ https://t.co/wMPcZGPTKu#EngvPak pic.twitter.com/1TpmNQ0TpT — England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 19, 2019
"I don't know the 15, I could pick 17 names at the moment," he told Test Match Special.
"It is going to be an extremely tough selection. Every member of the squad has made the decision even tougher.
"There will be a couple of disappointed men in the next few days but those guys, given the nature of high-level sport with injuries and illness, could be called upon during the World Cup."
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