LONDON: Uncapped Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid and Middlesex fast bowler Steven Finn were both called into a 13-man England squad announced on Wednesday for next week’s first Ashes Test against Australia in Cardiff.

Rashid, 27, who has played both One-day International and Twenty20, but not Test, cricket for England took eight wickets and performed well with the bat during England’s recent 3-2 50-over series win at home to World Cup finalists New Zealand.

The 26-year-old Finn played the last of his 23 Tests in the 2013 Ashes opener at Trent Bridge but has worked his way back into the squad after suffering problems with his bowling action.

Rashid was not included in England’s 14-man pre-Ashes training camp in Spain, where most of the squad met with their new Australian coach Trevor Bayliss for the first time.

Pace bowlers Liam Plunkett and Mark Footitt, who did make the trip, were not selected in a squad captained by Alastair Cook for the First Test at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens starting on July 8, where England will begin their bid to regain the Ashes following a 5-0 thrashing in Australia in 2013-14.

All the 11 England players who featured in both Tests during the 1-1 drawn series with New Zealand were included for the Ashes opener.

Rashid’s inclusion appeared to put pressure on off-spinner Moeen Ali’s place in the side but national selector James Whitaker said it was possible that England could field two specialist slow bowlers depending on the condition of the Sophia Gardens pitch.

“There are no huge surprises in the squad,” said Whitaker in an England and Wales Cricket Board statement.

“Adil Rashid’s inclusion provides Alastair and Trevor with plenty of bowling options and the surface at Cardiff will dictate who makes the final XI.”

Squad:

Alastair Cook (Essex, captain), Adam Lyth (Yorkshire), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Jos Buttler (Lancashire, wicket-keeper), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Mark Wood (Durham), James Anderson (Lancashire), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire).

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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