LONDON, May 17: England named three uncapped players — James Anderson, James Kirtley and Anthony McGrath — in a 13-man squad for next week’s first Test against Zimbabwe.

Anderson, the 20-year-old Lancashire seamer, was England’s most successful bowler in the World Cup with 10 wickets, while Sussex pace bowler Kirtley and McGrath, the Yorkshire captain and all-rounder, have made impressive starts to the county season.

Wicket-keeper Alec Stewart, 40, kept his place for what will be his 127th Test match.

“It’s a balance of winning today and planning for the future,” chairman of selectors David Graveney told the BBC on Saturday.

“Most of the discussion was about the wicketkeeping position. And after lengthy discussion we unanimously decided to stick with Alec. He is a world-class player.”

Kirtley replaced Andy Caddick, who has a foot injury, but England also have fitness concerns over all-rounder Andrew Flintoff who was named in the squad despite suffering from a shoulder problem.

“Our chief medical officer will continue to monitor the situation with Andrew Flintoff and we are hopeful that he will recover in time for the Test match,” Graveney said.

“We discussed at length the type of player that we would need as cover for Andrew and we have gone for Anthony McGrath as a batsman who can share the role of fifth bowler with Mark Butcher.

Robert Key looks certain to continue in the middle-order after being preferred to the more experienced John Crawley.

“We feel that Robert is very much part of England’s future,” Graveney added. “But we would stress that John Crawley has not let England down in the past and he has certainly not been removed from our future plans.

“James Kirtley has been part of the international set-up before at one-day level and has been in good form for Sussex this season. He fully deserves a chance in the longer form of the international game.

England’s bowling has been weakened by the absence of the injured Darren Gough and Craig White, so the hosts are likely to field an inexperienced new-ball pairing of Anderson and Steve Harmison, who has played in only five Tests.

Squad: Nasser Hussain (Essex, captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Mark Butcher (Surrey), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Ashley Giles (Warwickshire), Stephen Harmison (Durham), Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire), Robert Key (Kent), James Kirtley (Sussex), Anthony McGrath (Yorkshire), Alec Stewart (Surrey), Marcus Trescothick (Somerset), Michael Vaughan (Yorkshire).—Reuters