England announces its squad for limited-overs leg of the Ashes
The England and Wales Cricket Board has announced its 17-man squad for the limited-overs leg of the Ashes tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, retaining triumphant Andrew Strauss as captain for the seven-match one-day series while the reins would be handed over to the Paul Collingwood in the two T20 International games.
It was Geoff Miller, the national selector of England cricket, who announced the squad during the tea-time of England’s three-day tour game against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Craig-Kieswetter-c51708, who was the Player of the Match in England’s World T20 championships’ final against Australia, was named for the T20 format only.
Miller said that currently the focus of the team is solely to win the ongoing Ashes series - which the tourists are leading by 1-0 after two Tests – but the proximity of next year’s esteemed World Cup event has forced them to name their strongest possible squad for the one-day and T20 leg of the tour. The quadrennial event, which would be jointly hosted by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747, gets underway on February 19 next year.
"We believe we've picked a well-balanced squad to cover both the two Twenty20 matches and the ensuing seven-match ODI series against Australia," said Miller. "This series will be the ideal lead up to the ICC World Cup which immediately follows the tour of Australia," he added further.
The Test specialist Matt Prior has once again been overlooked by the English selectors for his place behind the stumps in favour of Steve Davies but Miller opined that Prior has not been overlooked rather Davies has been called in to compare the performance of the two.
"Matt is not being overlooked," said Miller. "He's made it clear he still wants to play one-day cricket, and we will continue to monitor him, but he has been given the opportunity before, both up the order and in the middle order. He was left out and we brought someone else in, and we will continue in that vein of consistency. We'll find out how these two go over a period of time."
Chris Tremlett has also been recalled to the limited-over squad after a gap of two years, but Ravi Bopara, who was dropped from the squad that played against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in September, once again failed to find a place in the squad.
England limited-over squad for Australia tour: Andrew Strauss (captain ODI series), Paul Collingwood (captain T20 series), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Steven Davies, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Craig Kieswetter (T20Is only), Graeme Swann, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajmal-Shahzad-c42489, James Tredwell, Chris Tremlett, Jonathan Trott, Michael Yardy, Luke Wright, Chris Woakes.
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