Vaughan: “The squad is right”

Michael Vaughan has confirmed his support for England’s Ashes selections, despite a large number of fitness problems for key players.

Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Liam Plunkett, Steve Harmison, James Anderson and Matthew Hoggard are all included despite either having missed games recently, or a large part of the summer. Flintoff and Giles have both been missing for most of the summer, with Giles’ lay-off stretching right back to when England toured Pakistan last year.

James Anderson has returned to domestic cricket for the finale of the season, while Plunkett, Harmison and Hoggard have all been ruled out of the final few games. Another possible doubt in the squad is Marcus Trescothick, who will miss the Champion’s Trophy with a stress related illness. All that were selected however came through an assessment session at Loughborough, under the eyes of England’s medical staff.

Nevertheless, Vaughan, who will miss the series with a long-term knee injury, said to the Yorkshire Post: ?The squad is right in my opinion.?I spoke to the selectors quite regularly about the squad and it was one of the easiest Ashes touring parties you could possibly pick. There weren’t really any tough decisions and the selectors would not have taken any risks on fitness.”

When speaking about England’s chances of winning down under for the first time in 20 years, Vaughan said: “It won’t be easy, but I think we’ve got one hell of a good chance. Australia will be at home, so they have a little bit of a head start, but I don’t think any of our players will be fazed by that.”