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Here it is, the big news both Australian and English cricket supporters have been waiting for!
The National Selection Panel has announced the 16 man squad that will travel to England for the 2009 Ashes 5-match Test series where Ricky Ponting and his elite Test match colleagues will battle England to retain the historical Ashes Urn after our 5-0 whitewash in 2006/07!
AUSTRALIAN 2009 ASHES TEST SQUAD:
Ricky Ponting (Captain)
Michael Clarke (vc)
Stuart Clark
Brad Haddin
Nathan Hauritz
Ben Hilfenhaus
Phillip Hughes
Michael Hussey
Mitchell Johnson
Simon Katich
Brett Lee
Graham Manou
Andrew McDonald
Marcus North
Peter Siddle
Shane Watson*
This will be the squad Australian supporters will be backing in their Ashes campaign!
Since 2005 there have been an astonishing 11 players that have retired or do not feature in this selection. Some have had a taste of the Ashes in squad selection before now, or actually been apart of the playing team in a series!
Players like the young and eye-opening Phillip Hughes who has just finished a dominating appearance in the County circuit to get England's supporters nipping, Mitchell Johnson our most rapidly developing Test cricketer with the ball and bat, as well as Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, Andrew MacDonald and Marcus North all enter as immediate candidates for a Test appearance in the series with important roles to play!
Other players, such as Michael Hussey and Stuart Clark will make their Ashes debut's on English soil after taking part in the 2006/07 series with Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Brett Lee no strangers to the intensity of an Ashes series home and away!
Simon Katich returns having featured in 2005's Ashes loss in England, where himself and Hughes are our opening guard to face the inform English pace bowlers! Experience and energised youth make them a formidable pair!
Mike Hussey made his impact in first-class cricket in County Cricket to eventually make the Australian side after hard-work and extreme perseveranc. He awaits a huge unaccomplished element of his career!
Ricky Ponting needs little mentioning of as everyone knows he will only be looking at targetting England's players for many, many runs in the Ashes. Punter has fallen victim to a rather inconsistent streak but he is a cricketer who everyone should know brings the best out when needed!
Michael Clarke is our middle order specialist who knows the conditions and has an elegant batting technique to turn around a match situation!
Brad Haddin will take the keeper duties and a reliant role in the middle order batting line-up, with South Australian Graham Manou as his “understudy” and even if he (Manou) doesn't feature in the matches, he will gain experience like Haddin did back in 2005 as Gilchrists cover and will no doubt remember, and has stated, remember the feeling of loss!
Marcus North may be making his Ashes debut, but he is no stranger to the English conditions!
Shane Watson has been selected subject to fitness but his form is cause for little concern after a solid return to Australian colours in his Pakistan ODI campaign recently. Watto provides flexibility to the line-up. I'd imagine his bowling is in doubt but that is little to worry about especially regarding the fact that with Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee, who can both bat at Test level, will be the new ball pair blasting the ball at Englands top order amd their extreme pace with great mental edge should be making the opponents sweat, which continues with Stuart Clark and Ben Hilfenhaus as specified experts to swing that ball and make England's Ashes a nightmare! Peter Siddle offers an ambitious dynamic to this bowling attack with all-rounder Andrew MacDonald being given thumbs up by the NSP where he can offer his medium-pacers to tie the batsmen down. Nathan Hauritz will be looking to play a big part on some of the wickets the conditions will present as our full-time spinner!
