England Lions team to play Australia at New Road:

Ian Bell (captain) (Warwickshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Joe Denly (Kent), Steven Davies (Worcestershire), Stephen Harmison (Durham), Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire), Stephen Moore (Worcestershire), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Graham Onions (Durham), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Vikram Solanki (Worcestershire).

Although it will be good to see three of our players wearing the England kit at our home ground, it's slightly worrying that this coincides with our game at Durham. Kerveezee, Wheeldon and Knappet presumably into the first XI for that one. Durham will also be without three players- Collingwood, Harmison and Onions

Meanwhile, the England first team will play a warm up against Warwickshire at Edgbaston at the same time, and that team is:

Andrew Strauss (captain), James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ravi Bopara, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann.

The England training squad that the Ashes teams should be selected from:
Andrew Strauss (captain) (Middlesex), James Anderson (Lancashire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Ravinder Bopara (Essex), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Alastair Cook (Essex), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Graham Onions (Durham), Monty Panesar (Northamptonshire), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Matt Prior (Sussex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire).

Could do with Admin 'merging' this with the other thread (?)

Dave Wheeldon injured his wrist fielding for Wolverhampton on Saturday, and didn't bat. Not sure what the damage is, but hope he is OK for the Durham match - he deserves his chance.

Durham away on that dodgy track of theirs with our only 3 classy players missing ? It will be another hammering. Let's hope for 4 days of rain.

Are you daverope in disguise?

No, just another worried fan who refuses to buy the rose-coloured glasses on sale at New Road !

Worth remebering that there are also several Durham players away on England and Lions duty as well.

Yes it is - but I suspect that their replacements will be just a touch stronger than ours !
At least looking on the bright side, we'll save on the overnight accommodation !

On the one hand you say that 1st team is rubbish and too cozy on the other that there is no one to replace them with anyway.

Some consistency would help here.

Bearing in Mind that until the feather bed of last week moore has not had much of a score to speak of all season then a chance for another opener or specialist batsman would be welcomed. Similarly that the captain is not in the squad then it is a chance for Gareth to step up to the plate and proove that he is not all p**s and wind (if you will pardon the expression) You also seem fairly convinced that Davies will not be here for next season so the sooner we assess the performance of Knappet the sooner we will know whether we need to look for another keeper or whether we already have the new keeper or not.

And all this with out the benefit of the special glasses they are selling at New Road apparently!!!!

No complaints both Durham and ourselves have 3 players on England/Lions Duty.

The best team over the 4 days will win.

We cannot use losing 3 players to England as an excuse-- So have they.

Of course, the main difference will be that Durham will be able to call on
5 or 6 overseas players, whereas we will have one.

Listening to last nights game on sky (this morning) it seems the match is being televised. with this, three quarters of the game being played during the week and with England playing a 144 bus ride away maybe this fixture isn't the golden egg for the club it first promised to be.

On second thoughts, obviously the TV money will make up the gate shortfall and everyone else will have to make to with whatever remains of the match on saturday.

This game MUST last until tea Saturday. Have forked out for tickets and it's supposed to be a big day out for us. Hope the pitch is like last nights.