No place for Harmison as England name first Ashes Test squad

England have unveiled their squad for the first Ashes Test, starting at Cardiff on Wednesday, with Ian Bell and Graham Onions added to the XI that drew with Warwickshire in the three-day warm-up game at Edgbaston earlier this week.

Steve Harmison’s six wickets for England Lions – including twice removing Aussie prodigy Phil Hughes – have not earned him a recall. Monty Panesar has kept out a strong challenge for the second spinner’s slot from Adil Rashid.

National Selector, Geoff Miller said: “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.

“We were keen to show consistency in selection and retain the nucleus of the side that performed so well against West Indies in the npower 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.

“ Ian Bell has performed well in county cricket this summer and he will act as cover batsman for this Test match should any of our established batsmen be unavailable through injury.

“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.”

Squad Andrew Strauss (capt) Middlesex; James Anderson; Ian Bell; Ravi Bopara; Stuart Broad; Paul Collingwood; Alastair Cook; Andrew Flintoff; Graham Onions; Monty Panesar; Kevin Pietersen; Matt Prior; Graeme Swann