Andrew Flintoff has made himself stay in shape and is on course to make his farewell to Test cricket in next week’s final Ashes match at the Oval, Manchester and was named in a 14-man squad on Sunday along with Jonathan Trott.
For the uninitiated, the uncapped Warwickshire batsman Trott has been in the selectors scheme of things for quite sometime and gives himself a good chance to make a high-pressure Test debut against Australia. The match which starts on Thursday is crucial for his team as it needs to win it to regain the Ashes.
Trott, who saw off competition from the likes of Mark Ramprakash will be replacing Ravi Bopara after the out-of-form batsman was dropped. England also gave themselves additional bowling options by bringing back left-arm spinner Monty Panesar to the squad while retaining left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom “Ravi Bopara has been going through a tough time with the bat in this series and we have decided to leave him out of the squad for this game,” said England national selector Geoff Miller. “Ravi’s omission means Jonathan Trott will make his Test debut at the Brit Oval,” the former England off-spinner said.
The Englishmen are taking no chances with regards to Flintoff and will be praying to the Almighty that the Talismanic all-rounder bowls, bats, fields and plays like ‘ONLY HE DOES’ much like his countless fans across the world.
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