England Call Up Uncapped Young Guns


By Paul Bakel
May 17 2003

England have named a 13-man squad, including three uncapped players for next week's 1st npower Test against Zimbabwe.

Home > Story Archive > England Call Up Uncapped Young Guns


England Call Up Uncapped Young Guns

England have named a 13-man squad, including three uncapped players for next week's 1st npower Test against Zimbabwe.

Lancashire's James Anderson, Sussex's James Kirtley and the Yorkshire captain Anthony McGrath have all been included in the squad for Lord's.

Kirtley was included as a replacement for Andrew Caddick who was ruled out of the first two Tests of the summer after specialists confirmed he had damaged ligaments in his right foot.

His call-up represents a complete turnaround in his international fortunes after being reported for a suspect bowling action while on England duty in Zimbabwe two winters ago.

"James has been part of the international set-up before at one-day level and has been in good form for Sussex this season," explained chairman of selectors David Graveney.

"He fully deserves a chance in the longer form of the international game."

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the call-up of McGrath, however, who has been drafted in as cover for all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who is rated doubtful after sustaining a compressed nerve in his right arm.

"Our chief medical officer will continue to monitor the situation with Andrew and we're hopeful that he will recover in time for the Test match," said Graveney.

"We discussed at length the type of player that we would need as cover and we have gone for Anthony McGrath as a batsman, who can share the role of fifth bowler with Mark Butcher."

McGrath, whose last representative cricket for England was under Nasser Hussain's captaincy of the 1995-6 A tour to Pakistan, added: "I was surprised and delighted to get the call from David Graveney this morning.

"I think I've been in good form this season so far and played pretty well without getting a really big score. I'm enjoying being Yorkshire captain and I'm really looking forward to joining up with England next week."



Discuss it on the message board!


Top Of Page

Bookmark or share this story with: