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England call up Dawson and Hegg Wisden CricInfo staff - August 28, 2001
Richard Dawson, Yorkshire's 21-year-old offspinner, has been named in England's 16-man squad for the tours to India and New Zealand, after playing just eight first-class games. He is one of three spinners in the squad, along with Ashley Giles, who should be fit again, and Robert Croft, whose average was better than Muttiah Muralitharan's in Sri Lanka last winter. Craig White returns after missing the last two Tests of the Ashes series. And England opt for two wicketkeepers - Jamie Foster of Essex, a Durham undergraduate widely regarded as the heir to Alec Stewart, and Warren Hegg, who has been in purple form with the bat for Lancashire this season, and who, at 33, is the oldest member of the party. Hegg returns three years after his most recent England appearance: he played at Melbourne and Sydney in the last two Tests of the 1998-99 Ashes series. Matthew Hoggard will take the new ball with Andy Caddick, and there's a place too for Jimmy Ormond. Usman Afzaal keeps his place, despite scoring just 83 runs in six innings in the Ashes. Alex Tudor is relegated to the new national Academy Squad, presumably to improve his fitness levels as much as his new-ball bowling. The one-day party for Zimbabwe next month (assuming the tour goes ahead) marks a clear break with the past, as Stewart and Gough are joined among the absentees by Graham Thorpe, Graeme Hick, Mark Ealham, Robert Croft, Caddick and Alan Mullally. In come Mark Ramprakash, presumably for his experience, although he has only played 13 one-day internationals, and four specialist fast bowlers, all of them uncapped: Hoggard, Ormond, James Kirtley of Sussex and Ryan Sidebottom of Yorkshire, who played in England's first Test of the season - against Pakistan at Lord's - but spent the rest of the summer in the shadows. The squad is packed with allrounders: Ben Hollioake, Andy Flintoff, Paul Collingwood and White are all there. So, more surprisingly, are two spinners picked as much for their batting as their bowling: Jeremy Snape, Gloucestershire's No. 6 batsman, ace fielder, and offspinner, who may have been picked to keep John Bracewell quiet; and Paul Grayson, the Essex opener and slow left-armer, who made a first-ball duck on his only international appearance for England, against South Africa in Kenya last October. His return gives hope to the likes of Richard Johnson, named in England's squad for the last three Ashes Tests, but overlooked in both parties this time.
If any England fans are brave enough to make the trip, they may have trouble recognising their team.
England Test squad to India and New Zealand, 2001-02
Allrounder
Wicketkeepers
Spinners
Fast bowlers
England one-day squad to Zimbabwe, October 2001
Batsmen
Allrounders
Wicketkeeper
Fast bowlers
England National Academy Squad, 2001-2002
Batsmen
Wicketkeeper
Spinners
Fast Bowlers
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd |
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