Walker is supporting James to continue as England's first choice

James and West Ham's Green have both been named in England's 30-man provisional squad by Fabio Capello with Manchester City's 23-year-old Joe Hart, who impressed on loan at Birmingham City last season, also included as apparent third choice with just one substitute appearance to his name.

Green, 30, won the last of his nine caps in England's last outing against Egypt at Wembley, while 39-year-old James needs one more appearance to reach 50 after coming off the bench in the defeat by Ukraine last October after the West Ham goalkeeper was sent off.

"David has the experience and he has been playing decently even though Portsmouth have been struggling a little bit," said former Tottenham and Leicester City goalkeeper Walker.

"I think for experience David will probably start. It is hard, but if you are going to go with experience then David has to start."

James produced a timely reminder to Capello in Saturday's FA Cup final defeat by Chelsea.

Portsmouth midfielder Jamie O'Hara admitted he and his team-mates started to believe they could win the game after James's first-half defiance.

He said: "We rode our luck in the first half but David James pulled off some unbelievable saves."

Walker continued: "Experience is a key factor, but you could also argue 'how do you get experience?'. It is a tough one, but I think David will start (in South Africa)," added Walker.

"It is going to be tough on Rob because he has done well and not let anybody down, but I would probably go with experience.

"Joe has also done really well so I think that it is good that he goes. He is a young lad and he can get some experience."

Walker, who won four caps for England between 1996 and 2004, admits he was surprised Blackburn Rovers' Paul Robinson was not handed an England recall.

"He is the only one that may have had a shout. I know (Blackburn manager) Sam Allardyce has been talking about how Paul Robinson probably should have gone," said 38-year-old Walker.

England play Mexico at Wembley on May 24 and Japan in Austria six days later before beginning their World Cup campaign against the United States in Rustenburg on June 12. They also face Algeria on June 18 and Slovenia on June 23 in Group C.