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Steve Harmison's impressive performance against Australia this week has failed to earn him a place in England's squad for the first npower Ashes Test in Cardiff.
The 30-year-old Durham fast bowler claimed six wickets for England Lions during their drawn match against the tourists in Worcester, including the scalp of dangerous opener Phil Hughes in both innings.
But the selectors have decided not to include Harmison, whose fiery new ball burst at Lord's four years ago set the tone for England's stunning Ashes success, and have instead included Durham team-mate Graham Onions in a 13-man squad.
Onions claimed 10 wickets in the one-sided series win over West Indies earlier this summer and has been added to the England line-up who drew their practice match against Warwickshire last week while Ian Bell is included as cover for the batting.
"We were delighted with the way in which the team performed in the warm-up match at Edgbaston and it was very encouraging to see Andrew Flintoff bowl so well on his return to the side," enthused national selector Geoff Miller.
"We were keen to show consistency in selection and retain the nucleus of the side that performed so well against West Indies in the Test series earlier this summer.
"Graham Onions has made an excellent start to his Test career and gives us a different option when we consider the make-up of our bowling attack and the type of conditions we will encounter."
Yorkshire all-rounder Tim Bresnan has dropped out of the squad having featured for the first time against West Indies to accommodate the return of Flintoff, who has been recalled after missing the start of the season while he recovered from a knee operation.
Left-arm spinner Monty Panesar also returns after missing the West Indies series while both Harmison and Nottinghamshire left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom, who claimed two wickets in their championship match against Lancashire this week, have been given encouraging messages by Miller at the start of the eagerly-anticipated series against Australia.
"There is healthy competition for places in our starting line-up at present and the strong performance by the England Lions against Australia at Worcester demonstrated that we are starting to develop a larger squad of players who can compete effectively with international class players," he said.
England's squad for the opening npower Ashes Test against Australia, which starts in Cardiff on Wednesday: AJ Strauss (Middlesex, capt) Age 32 Tests 61, AN Cook (Essex) 24 43, RS Bopara (Essex) 24 6, KP Pietersen (Hampshire) 29 52, PD Collingwood (Durham) 33 48, MJ Prior (Sussex, wkt) 27 18, A Flintoff (Lancashire) 31 74, SCJ Broad (Notinghamshire) 23 17, GP Swann (Nottinghamshire) 30 7, JM Anderson (Lancashire) 26 37, MS Panesar (Northamptonshire) 27 38, IR Bell (Warwickshire) 27 46, G Onions (Durham) 26 2.
Your Comments
luke
Jack, you have to consider the pitches and environment as well, Harmison will become ineffective if the conditions don't suit him (unfortunately this goes for Anderson, Broad and Sidebottom too). The selectors also have to pick bowlers who can give England consistency and effort all season; not a bowler who will be great late season at home then just not interested in overseas tours. He would be blocking the development of Onions or AN Other if picked IMO.
My main beef is with Bell and Panesar. What a terrible choice. Panesar has shown over the last few years that he's a slow bowler with very little imagination and easily dominated. Add to that his shocking batting and fielding then what is he bringing to the party? Rashid maybe young but after two wickets and 66 against what will most probably be Australia's test side his omission for Panesar is tragic. Bell will do nothing this summer apart from amount a few 20-something innings and spend most of the time shaking his head as he heads back to the pavillion after another nothing innings.
Luckily for England, some clown has decided that South Wales is a good place to have a test match, now the weather has turned it's unlikely that we'll see more than a feww sessions of cricket anyway.
Qasar
No Sidebottom, no win.
jack
Not including Harmison for the first test is a big mistake. He is red hot at the moment, and has the measure of Hughes for sure. Once Hughes settles down he will be very difficult to dislodge and Australia will get the good starts that they need to enable them to post big totals from which they can then dominate proceedings. It feels as if some other prejudices are playing a role in his omission. What a shame. Time will tell whether this was a good decision. We all know what a good team Australia is, and once they take a lead in the series they will be very difficult to peg back. A golden opportunity was missed. Let us hope this does not have big consequences.