Ashes Countdown 70

England Announces 16-member Ashes Squad. Flintoff to Lead.

As expected England named Andrew Flintoff as the captain of the 16-member squad that will be touring Australia this Winter to defend the Ashes. No major surprises too in the touring party. A 14 member squad which will be based in Perth under the supervision of National Academy Director, Peter Moores is also named. In case of any emergency replacements that England may need during this difficult tour the members of this squad would be available immediately to don the national colors.

Flintoff will be leading the team for Champions Trophy that precedes the Ashes during which three key players, Ashley Giles, Steven Harmison and James Anderson were expected to prove their fitness. Two members of the last year’s Ashes triumph Michael Vaughan and Simon Jones are excluded from the squad as they are still nursing their injuries and are not expected to recover till the start of 2007 season.

Ashes Squad: Andrew Flintoff (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Geraint Jones, Sajid Mahmood, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Chris Read, Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick.

Champions Trophy squad: Andrew Flintoff (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Rikki Clarke, Paul Collingwood, James Dalrymple, Steve Harmison, Ed Joyce, Sajid Mahmood, Jon Lewis, Kevin Pietersen, Chris Read, Andrew Strauss, and Michael Yardy.

Academy Squad: Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Rikki Clarke, James Dalrymple, Steven Davies, Ed Joyce, Robert Key, Jon Lewis, Graham Onions, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Tom Smith, Chris Tremlett, Michael Yardy.

Only four members from England's Previous Ashes tour of Australia, Marcus Trescothick, Ashley Giles, Steven Harmison, Matthew Hoggard will be making a return trip whereas just four players Martin Love, Darren Lehmann, Andy Bichel and Steve Waugh who played during those series for Australia may not find a place in this winter’s Ashes campaign. Robert Key who played in 4 tests in 2002/03 will be available as part of the National Academy. None of these five players have put up any noteworthy performances during that tour as shown in the table below:

Eng- Player Ashes 2002/03	Age on 23/11/06	M	Runs	HS	Ave	100s	50s	0s	Runs	Wkts	Best	5WI	10WM	Ave	Cts	Sts
Steve Harmison	28	4	47	20*	7.83	-	-	1	455	9	3-70	-	-	50.55	1	-
Robert Key	27	4	141	52	17.60	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
Matthew Hoggard	29	3	12	6	2.40	-	-	2	375	6	4-92	-	-	62.50	1	-
Marcus Trescothick	30	5	261	72	26.10	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	-
Ashley Giles	33	1	17	13	8.50	-	-	-	191	6	4-101	-	-	31.83	2	-

On paper, this looks as the weakest English team ever that is being given the enormous responsibility of defending the Ashes which England regained last year after 16 years. If we compare the test career records of England’s 16 member squad and four members of the Academy squad who played test cricket before to that of Australia’s current contracted players and the 18 members of the DLF cup squad, who are expected to be available for the Ashes, it is clearly evident that Australia has almost double the experience in all departments of the game. England’s 481 combined test match experience yielded 21217 runs as against Australia’s 44169 runs in 993 tests. Australians have amassed 118 centuries and 171 fifties against England's 46 hundreds and 93 fifties. England’s 839 wickets with 25 5WI & 2 10WM pales in comparison to Australia’s 2094 wickets 98 5WI & 15 10WM hauls. Even in fielding Australia’s 943 catches & 35 stumpingss are way too ahead of England’s 472 catches and 10 stumpings.

No doubt Australia will be fielding their best eleven to avenge their defeats of 2005 Ashes and will be trying their best to inflict a whitewash on England. Only thing that may come to England’s rescue during their trip down under is their youthful enthusiasm as 17 of the 26 Australian Test prospects for this winter’s Ashes will be above 30 ( 8 of them above 35) when the test series kicks off at Brisbane on Nov 23rd, 2006. For England only four members of the touring party (Giles 33, Trescothick, Collingwood & Geraint Jones all 30) will be in their 30s. Jon Lewis is the only member of the National Academy who will be at an age of over 30.

See the tables below:(ODI indicates played in ODIs only. FC denotes played in first class cricket and not in ODIs or Tests for the Country)

Test Career Records of the Members of England Squad for the Ashes 2006-07:

Eng- Player Ashes Squad	Age on 23/11/06	M	Runs	HS	Ave	100s	50s	0s	Runs	Wkts	Best	5WI	10WM	Ave	Cts	Sts
James Anderson	24	13	89	21*	14.83	-	-	-	1353	41	5-73	2	-	33.00	4	-
Ian Bell	24	18	1287	162*	47.66	5	7	3	64	1	1-33	-	-	64.00	18	-
Paul Collingwood	30	15	1027	186	41.10	2	3	-	245	1	1-33	-	-	245.00	20	-
Alastair Cook	21	9	761	127	54.40	3	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	7	-
Andrew Flintoff	28	62	3127	167	32.92	5	22	14	5827	186	5-58	2	-	31.33	44	-
Ashley Giles	33	52	1347	59	20.72	-	4	8	5544	140	5-57	5	-	39.60	32	-
Steve Harmison	28	45	505	42	11.50	-	-	15	5127	179	7-12	8	1	28.81	6	-
Matthew Hoggard	29	58	414	38	7.81	-	-	15	6607	222	7-61	6	1	29.76	23	-
Geraint Jones	30	31	1109	100	25.79	1	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	119	5
Sajid Mahmood	24	5	63	34	15.80	-	-	-	498	15	4-22	-	-	33.20	-	-
Monty Panesar	24	10	51	26	10.20	-	-	3	1037	32	5-72	2	-	32.40	2	-
Kevin Pietersen	26	18	1597	158	48.40	5	5	2	76	1	1-11	-	-	76.00	11	-
Liam Plunkett	21	6	69	28	8.63	-	-	4	601	16	3-17	-	-	37.56	2	-
Chris Read	28	13	55	55	20.30	-	1	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	37	5
Andrew Strauss	29	31	2597	147	46.40	10	7	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	39	-
Marcus Trescothick	30	76	5825	219	43.80	14	29	12	155	1	1-34	-	-	155.00	95	-

Test Career Records of Academy Squad Members who are expected to be called in as replacements in case of any emergencies for England during the Ashes :

Eng-Player Academy Squad	Age on 23/11/06	M	Runs	HS	Ave	100s	50s	0s	Runs	Wkts	Best	5WI	10WM	Ave	Cts	Sts
Robert Key	27	15	775	221	31.00	1	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	-
Jon Lewis	31	1	27	20	13.50	-	-	-	122	3	3-68	-	-	-	-	-
Owais Shah	28	1	126	88	63.00	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Rikki Clarke	25	2	96	55	32.00	-	1	-	60	4	2-7	15.00	-	-	1	-
Chris Tremlett	25	ODI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Jamie Dalrymple	25	ODI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Ed Joyce	28	ODI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Stuart Broad	20	ODI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Michael Yardy	25	ODI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Matt Prior	24	FC	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Ravinder Bopara	21	FC	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Steven Davies	20	FC	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Graham Onions	24	FC	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tom Smith	20	FC	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Test Career Records of Australian Players who are expected to be available for the Ashes :

Aus-Contracted-Prospect Player	Age on 23/11/06	Mat	Runs	HS	Ave	100s	50s	0s	Runs	Wkts	Best	5WI	10WM	Ave	Ct	St
Nathan Bracken	29	5	70	37	17.50	-	-	-	505	12	4-48	-	-	42.08	2	-
Stuart Clark	31	4	31	13*	10.33	-	-	1	394	21	5-55	1	-	18.76	2	-
Michael Clarke	25	22	1123	151	36.23	2	4	-	75	8	6-9	1	-	9.38	18	-
Dan Cullen	22	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	54	1	1-25	-	-	54.00	-	-
Adam Gilchrist	35	85	5124	204*	48.80	16	22	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	320	35
Jason Gillespie	31	71	1218	201*	18.74	1	2	13	6770	259	7-37	8	-	26.14	27	-
Matthew Hayden	35	84	7326	380	53.09	26	26	11	40	-	0-7	-	-	-	111	-
Brad Hodge	32	5	409	203*	58.43	1	1	-	8	-	0-8	-	-	-	9	-
Brad Hogg	35	4	38	17*	9.50	-	-	-	452	9	2-40	-	-	50.22	-	-
Michael Hussey	31	11	1139	182	75.93	4	4	-	18	-	0-2	-	-	-	3	-
Phil Jaques	27	2	96	66	32.00	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
Michael Kasprowicz	34	38	445	25	10.60	-	-	7	3716	113	7-36	4	-	32.88	16	-
Simon Katich	31	23	1260	125	36.00	2	8	2	406	12	6-65	1	-	33.83	15	-
Justin Langer	36	100	7393	250	45.36	22	29	10	3	-	0-3	-	-	-	68	-
Brett Lee	30	54	1033	64	21.08	-	3	9	6636	211	5-30	7	-	31.45	15	-
Stuart MacGill	35	40	347	43	10.21	-	-	11	5387	198	8-108	12	2	27.21	16	-
Damien Martyn	35	65	4361	165	47.40	13	23	7	168	2	1-0	-	-	84.00	33	-
Glenn McGrath	36	119	631	61	7.51	-	1	34	11684	542	8-24	28	3	21.56	37	-
Ricky Ponting	32	105	8792	257	58.23	31	34	8	231	5	1-0	-	-	46.20	120	-
Andrew Symonds	31	10	286	72	19.07	-	2	2	409	9	3-50	-	-	45.44	10	-
Shaun Tait	23	2	8	4	8.00	-	-	-	210	5	3-97	-	-	42.00	-	-
Shane Warne	37	140	2958	99	16.62	-	11	34	17297	685	8-71	36	10	25.25	120	-
Shane Watson	25	3	81	31	20.25	-	-	-	123	2	1-25	-	-	61.50	-	-
Brad Haddin	29	ODI
Mitchell Johnson	25	ODI
Mark Cosgrove	22	ODI

We will be doing more analysis on the members of the squad and their performances in prior Ashes Series during our countdown to the Ashes.