England has included fast bowler, Steve Finn, and batsman, Eoin Morgan, in the 12-man squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka, set to be played at Sophia Gardens from the May 26.
The two teams are going to be locked in a battle for supremacy over a three Test match series with the winners set to give India a nudge at the top of International Cricket Council’s rankings for the top Test team in the world.
Finn was included in the squad ahead of fast bowler Ajmal Shahzad, who was knocked out of reckoning following a strong performance by Finn in the match against England Lions.
The Chief of the English selection panel, Geoff Miller, told media that the tall pacer from Durham has done quite well in the recent months and deserves his chance of playing against the Sri Lankans in the Test series, he added that his performance in Ashes was also consistent and more of the same would be expected of him in the upcoming cricket season.
"He was in the Ashes and again it's consistent," Miller said. "He's bowled well this year, he bowled well here against the Sri Lankans, and he's part of our squad. We are in a very nice position where we have a lot of quality seamers and it's hard to make that choice”.
Besides Finn the selectors also decided to include the left-handed batsman, Eoin Morgan, who was forced to sit out the Ashes series, where his position was taken by the all-rounder, Paul Collingwood, the former T20 captain retired from the longest format of the game after an indifferent Ashes campaign. Keeping this fact in mind, Morgan has been preferred over Ravi Bopara in the team for the first Test.
The wicket at Sophia Gardens generally favours the batsmen, hence the English would be hoping that Morgan cements his batting spot with a strong performance there.
Morgan inclusion is a testament of the policy of the English selection panel that unlike most selectors around the world tend to stick to players that they identify as future prospects.
The rest of the squad selects itself automatically, with the left handed opening batsman Alastair Cook aiming to continue his golden run that saw him amass more than 700 runs in the Ashes series. Another key performer would be Graeme Swann who would find bowling to Sri Lankan batsmen a real challenge considering their proficiency against slow bowlers.
England 12-man squad for Cardiff Test is as follows:
Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (wicket-keeper), Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett, James Anderson and Steven Finn.
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