Michael Vaughan, Ian Bell and Stephen Harmison have all been left out of England's 12-man squad for the first npower Test match against the West Indies on Wednesday. Owais Shah has been dropped after playing the last three Tests in the Caribbean.
Ravi Bopara, the Essex batsman, has been picked to fill the No 3 position after hitting a hundred against the West Indians in Barbados last month. And in a party of bold selections, uncapped seamers Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions will provide the back-up to James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
"This is very exciting for the two young fast bowlers to be included in the squad for a Lord's Test match and sends a message to all county players that if they put in consistently good performances they will get recognised," Geoff Miller, the national selector, said. "Both have had good starts to this season and had been close to Test match selection on a number of occasions.
"They have earned their place in the party. The selectors also felt that Ravi Bopara deserved his chance after his performance in his single Test in the Caribbean this winter.
"There was a lot of competition for that batting position but Bopara now has the opportunity to stake a claim. He showed he has the ability to play at Test level."
Left-arm spinner Monty Panesar is also included which gives captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower the opportunity to ponder the option of two slow men, a policy which some believe could be productive for the Ashes later this summer.
On the batting front, Bell, 27, was expected to return after hitting the LV County Championship's first hundred of the season for Warwickshire against Somerset and also registering a one-day century against the same opposition.
However, the selectors have demanded greater weight of runs in domestic cricket from him to emphasise a desire to get back to the international fold.
Shah, the man who displaced him for the final three Tests in the Caribbean, has been consigned to bench-warming in the Indian Premier League and therefore unable to justify his retention after a fallow return to Tests. So Bopara, currently featuring in the Indian Premier League, is back after his 104 in a one-off chance at Kensington Oval.
"The selectors felt that Ravi Bopara deserved his chance after his performance in his single Test in the Caribbean this winter," Miller added.
"There was a lot of competition for that batting position but Bopara now has the opportunity to stake a claim. "He showed in Barbados that he has the ability to play at Test level."
England squad for the 1st npower Test Match against West Indies:
A Strauss (Middlesex, captain)J Anderson (Lancashire)R Bopara (Essex)T Bresnan (Yorkshire)S Broad (Nottinghamshire)P Collingwood (Durham)A Cook (Essex)G Onions (Durham)M Panesar (Northamptonshire)K Pietersen (Hampshire)M Prior (Sussex, wicketkeeper)G Swann (Nottinghamshire)
Source:The times
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