Later this year will see one of the fiercest rivalries in the whole of sport renewed as England visit Australia to likely be taught a lesson in how to play cricket in yet another whitewashed Ashes series. Anyone who remembers what happened back in 2006, when Steven Harmison’s first ball was so far wide it almost left the stadium, will be wary predicting even one of the tests going England’s way, but there’s optimism this time like never before. Well not since 2006 anyway.
Today marked the announcement of the squad that will set foot in Australia this winter, and there were a few surprises. Monty Panesar was included in the squad for the first time in a while as the second spinner, and Kevin Pietersen, with smartphone at the ready, tweeted his way into the 16-man squad.
The touring party in full is as follows (county in brackets): Andrew Strauss (captain, Middlesex), Alastair Cook (vice-captain, Essex), James Anderson (Lancashire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Steven Davies (wk, Surrey), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Monty Panesar (Sussex), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Matt Prior (wk, Sussex), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Chris Tremlett (Surrey), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire).
