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England Squads Announced

Thursday, September 11 2003

England named four uncapped players in their Test Squad for the upcoming tours of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the form of Gareth Batty, Paul Collingwood, Geraint Jones and Rikki Clarke.

In squads which showed several changes to those that ended the summer's enthralling campaigns against South Africa, Worcestershire seamer Kabir Ali and Kent's middle-order batsman Ed Smith were cast aside having failed to impress against the Proteas whilst Martin Bicknell has, unsurprisingly, not been retained. James Kirtley and Richard Johnson are only in the one-day squad.

Yorkshire skipper Anthony McGrath retained his place in the one-day party but was omitted from the Test sixteen whilst Andy Strauss received his first England call in the one-day side - bizarrely, given his far superior Test record - in place of Jim Troughton, who struggled in the summer's NatWest Series.

David Graveney's reasoning for Rikki Clarke's call was that two all-rounders were needed, which begs the question - why pick Clarke? - but it's clear that the selectors have seen something that the rest of England hasn't. Durham man Collingwood has, like Matthew Hoggard, returned from injury late on this summer and shown the selectors what they were missing out on whilst he was out of action.

Born in Papua New Guinea to Welsh parents, and brought up in Australia, Kent wicketkeeper Geraint Jones has sealed the position as understudy to the impressive Chris Read rather than Essex's James Foster by dint of his batting prowess, whilst Worcestershire off-spinner Gareth Batty has retained his position as number two spinner behind Ashley Giles. A third spinner may be called up for the Sri Lankan leg of the tour, with Jason Brown, Robert Croft and Ian Blackwell the names mooted by the Chairman of Selectors.

Fast bowler Simon Jones makes the Academy shortlist alongside highly-rated Sussex wicketkeeperr Matt Prior, talented Gloucestershire batsman Alex Gidman and hard-hitting Nottinghamshire pair Kevin Pietersen and Bilal Shafayat, but Durham left-armer Graeme Bridge was omitted. The Academy will train at Loughborough University before touring Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and India.

Nottinghamshire batsman Samit Patel leads an Under 19 side into the Under 19 World Cup in Bangladesh, which includes a formidable pace pairing in Yorkshire's Tim Bresnan and Durham's Liam Plunkett whilst Somerset batsman James Hildreth and Essex all-rounder Ravinder Bopara have first-class experience. Yorkshireman Mark Lawson is the leg-spinner selected as part of the Terry Jenner-backed initiative.

Full Squads

Posted by Neil