Graham Onions is the fifth pacer in the England team for the first Ashes Test after Tim Bresnan, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Steven Finn.
AFP/London
Graham Onions was yesterday recalled by England as they boosted their bowling options by naming five seamers in a 13-man squad for the first Test of the Ashes series against Australia at Trent Bridge next week.
Durham paceman Onions won the last of his nine Test caps against the West Indies at Edgbaston last year. He was joined in the squad by Yorkshire seam-bowling all-rounder Tim Bresnan, who missed the recent home series win over Australia while he recovered from elbow surgery. Also in the squad are pace trio James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Steven Finn.
Broad missed England’s warm-up win over Essex with a shoulder injury, a match where key off-spinner Graeme Swann was struck a painful blow on the right arm having had surgery on his right elbow earlier this year. But both bowlers were passed fit.
As expected, Nick Compton was left out of the squad. England national selector Geoff Miller had earlier said Joe Root would be promoted to open the innings, something the 22-year-old does for Yorkshire but has yet to do at the Test level, alongside captain Alastair Cook.
Somerset opener Compton, grandson of England great Denis, scored back-to-back hundreds in New Zealand earlier this year but was omitted after a poor return series against the Kiwis that saw him manage just 39 runs in four innings.
Meanwhile, star batsman Kevin Pietersen returned to the Test squad for the first time since March following a knee injury.
England will be bidding to win their third straight series against Australia—something they last managed in the 1950s—when the first Test of a five-match campaign starts in Nottingham on Wednesday.
England squad: Alastair Cook (Essex, capt), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Kevin Pietersen (Surrey), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Matt Prior (Sussex, wk), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Steven Finn (Middlesex), James Anderson (Lancashire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Graham Onions (Durham)
Ashes trumpeter banned from Trent Bridge
A familiar sound associated with the England cricket team is set to be missing during next week’s Ashes opener in Nottingham after ‘Billy the Trumpet’ was effectively banned from playing at Trent Bridge. Billy Cooper, a professional musician, has become a fixture with the ‘Barmy Army’ group of supporters who follow England home and away, with his well-judged interludes—a few bars of the ‘Great Escape’ when the team is fighting a rearguard action for example—becoming popular with spectators.
But Cooper took to Twitter on Friday to say he wouldn’t be performing, as things stood, when the first Test starts at Trent Bridge on Wednesday. “Just to clarify that @TrentBridge have said I can’t play at the 1st test. Disappointed. Gutted,” Cooper wrote as @billbarmytrump.
England spinner Graeme Swann, followed by wicketkeeper Matt Prior, both backed Cooper’s cause with a retweet saying: “We just want to get behind @Swannyg66 @MattPrior13 @JimmyAnderson9 & the boys #LetBillyBlowhisTrumpet” we want him.” Kevin Pietersen too weighed in by calling the “stupid decision” a “DISGRACE”.