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| August 1, 2005 | Monday | Jumadi-us-Sani 24, 1426 |
England remain unchanged for second Test
LONDON, July 31: England named an unchanged 12-man squad on Sunday to face Australia in the second Ashes Test starting at Edgbaston on Aug 4. Michael Vaughan’s side trail the five-match series 1-0 after losing by 239 runs at Lord’s.
“The selectors met on the Monday after the Lord’s Test and looked at the way we played and identified the obvious plus points including bowling Australia out twice, (Stephen) Harmison’s bowling, and (Kevin) Pietersen’s batting,” said England chairman of selectors David Graveney.
“Obviously there were areas we needed to improve on in order to win the game, but the conclusion of the selectors was that we wanted to stick with the same squad.
“We don’t believe that there’s any need to change the team. Clearly we are disappointed that the result of the first Test went against us, but we still have strong belief in the squad that was selected.”
All-rounder Paul Collingwood, a mainstay of England’s one-day team, had been touted for a test recall after hitting three centuries in a week for his county Durham.
But Graveney said adding Collingwood to the squad would have “muddied the waters” and affected the balance of the side.
“Paul wants to play test match cricket, and he can’t do any more than he’s done,” Graveney told Sky Sports News.
“We didn’t want to go down the route (of selecting 13 players). It muddies the waters and sends the wrong message to the blokes that are in the team.
“But they are aware, if we are talking about batsmen, the likes of Robert Key, Paul (Collingwood) and Ed Joyce and others will be knocking on the door before the end of the series.”
Squad: Michael Vaughan (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones, Ashley Giles, Simon Jones, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Chris Tremlett.—Reuters
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