In fewer than 100 days the Three Lions take on Tunisia in their World Cup opener and with friendlies looming against the Netherlands and Italy, manager Gareth Southgate should be putting the final touches to his choices for the squad going to Russia this summer.

The manager stated in an interview with BBC Sport, that to be chosen players "need to be playing regularly" and "be in good form," but there are some inclusions in his latest squad that would throw question marks over that assertion.

Harry Kane absent

With the mercurial Spurs striker sidelined for several weeks after his injury in the game against Bournemouth, Southgate has turned to other clubs for a potent strikeforce, but this is where the first question arises.

Included in the squad is Arsenal's Danny Welbeck, who, despite netting twice against AC Milan this week has only managed three goals in the Premier League this season. Conspicuous by his absence is Brighton striker Glenn Murray who, at the age of 34, is in the form of his career having scored 11 this season, more than Welbeck and Rashford combined. Murray, in fact, is the league's fourth-highest scorer behind Kane, Raheem Sterling and Jamie Vardy.

Joe Hart retained

Southgate has included four keepers in his squad, with Stoke City's Jack Butland named again and new caps for Everton's Jordan Pickford and Burnley's Nick Pope.

There is no doubt that Hart has seniority over his goalkeeping colleagues but should he really get the nod ahead of in-form stoppers like Pope and Butland?

After poor performances at Euro 2016, Hart could not retain his place at Manchester City and having returned to the Premier League with West Ham he has only managed 15 starts this season. This again flies in the face of the manager's claim to choose those playing regularly. In addition, stats from Opta show that three of Hart's errors have resulted in goals this season while only one has for Butland and none for Pope or Pickford.

The England Squad

In some ways, Southgate's choices have been brave. His selections in central defence have between them a total of 27 international caps and John Stones has won 23 of them! He has left out Chelsea's Gary Cahill and Manchester United's Chris Smalling in favour of in-form youngsters James Tarkowski and Alfie Mawson who have had outstanding seasons for their clubs so far.

So it would appear that Gareth Southgate is starting to ring a few changes within the England set-up. Whether these changes will signify a change for the better remains to be seen, but tough games against the Netherlands and Italy will be a solid test for the new group of players.