Nasser Hussain recently intimated that his expiry date would be breached by the end of next summer. While Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan have been touted as the two front-runners for the job.

Atherton, though, believes that duo should concentrate on cementing England's finest first-wicket partnership for a generation while Butcher, 30 last week, takes the reins.

"It looks like it is out of those three and I think the bookies' favourite is Trescothick.

"My own personal choice would be Mark Butcher, I just think he has got a good cricket brain," said Atherton, who played one of his 115 Tests under Butcher's captaincy, during a series against New Zealand three years ago.

"He's in prime form, old enough to have seen some of the vagaries of the game and experienced some of the ups and downs," Atherton added at a Sports Writers' Association lunch in central London.

"I would like Trescothick and Vaughan to flourish at the top of the order. They should be left to concentrate on that.

"Butch has been through a bad run of form and left out of the team, he's seen things outside of the game which have affected his life and he's come through."