England named an unchanged squad on Sunday for the second Ashes Test against Australia starting at Edgbaston on Thursday. The squad was the same as that which lost the first Test at Lord's last week by 239 runs to give Australia a 1-0 lead in the five-match series with uncapped Hampshire seamer Chris Tremlett again included.
After England had twice been bowled out for under 200 at Lord's there had been speculation that Durham all-rounder Paul Collingwood - who made 190 against Derbyshire and scores of 191 and 105 not out against Somerset might be included to strengthen the batting.
But England, looking for their first Ashes series win since 1986-87, stuck by the same 12 that lost the opener in a match where debutant middle-order batsman Kevin Pietersen twice top-scored with innings of 57 and 64 not out and fast bowler Stephen Harmison took eight for 97 in the match.
"The selectors met on the Monday after the Lords Test and looked at the way we played and identified the obvious plus points including bowling Australia out twice, Harmison's bowling, and Pietersen's batting," David Graveney, England's chairman of selectors, said in a statement on Sunday.
"Obviously there were areas we needed to improve on in order to win the game, but the conclusion of the selectors was that we wanted to stick with the same squad for the second Ashes Test," added Graveney, whose side have risen to second in the world Test rankings behind Australia.
"We don't believe that theres any need to change the team, clearly we are disappointed that the result of the first Test went against us, but we still have strong belief in the squad that was selected."
ENGLAND SQUAD: Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan (capt), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones (wkt), Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Stephen Harmison, Simon Jones, Chris Tremlett.
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