ENGLAND SQUAD REMAINS SAME FOR THE LORD TEST




Having secured a comfortable 169-run win in the first Ashes Test in Cardiff to take a 1-0 lead, England have named an unchanged 13-man squad for the second game at Lord's next week, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Sunday.

Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali picked up three wickets apiece as England won the opening Test inside four days. Australia, who were chasing a record 412 for an unlikely victory, were bowled out for 242. Joe Root scored a masterful hundred in the first innings and a fifty in the second while there were also pressure-easing half-centuries from Gary Ballance and Ian Bell. Ali also scored a swashbuckling 77 and took five wickets in the match while Broad also picked up the same number of wickets.

England enjoyed an emphatic win in their first match under new Australian coach Trevor Bayliss, who was appointed Peter Moores' successor in May. The Australian said he had seen signs during the drawn Test series against New Zealand in May and June that England were poised to do something special but warned against complacency ahead of the Lord's test.

"The players have been heading in the right direction over the last series with New Zealand and I was lucky to come in at this time," Bayliss told reporters. "They are interested in playing good, attacking cricket. Any win is a fantastic feeling. The boys are aware that when you beat Australia, the next match is going to be even tougher because they will come back hard. There is a long way to go in this series. To win we will have to play some very good cricket."

Should England go in with the same eleven for the second game that starts on Thursday, Middlesex pace bowler Steven Finn, without a Test cap since July 2013, and Yorkshire's uncapped spinner Adil Rashid will have to warm the bench. The third test begins at Edgbaston on July 29, the fourth at Trent Bridge on August 6 while the final match of the series will be played at the Oval from August 20.

England Squad: Alastair Cook (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Mark Wood