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England today named a 13-man squad for next week's 1st npower Test Match v Sri Lanka at Lord's from May 16th-20th.

With Darren Gough and James Foster missing out through injury, Alec Stewart will keep wicket and there are also recalls for John Crawley, Dominic Cork and Alex Tudor.

The full squad is:

Nasser Hussain *   (Essex)        28.3.68            
Mark Butcher       (Surrey)       23.8.72
Andrew Caddick     (Somerset)     21.11.68
Dominic Cork       (Derbyshire)   7.8.71  
John Crawley       (Hampshire)    21.9.71
Andrew Flintoff    (Lancashire)   6.12.77
Ashley Giles       (Warwickshire) 19.3.73 
Matthew Hoggard    (Yorkshire)    31.12.76
Alec Stewart       (Surrey)       8.4.63 
Graham Thorpe      (Surrey)       1.8.69 
Marcus Trescothick (Somerset)     25.12.75 
Alex Tudor         (Surrey)       23.10.77
Michael Vaughan    (Yorkshire)    29.10.74

Commenting on the Test squad announcement, David Graveney, said: "With regard to the wicket-keeping position, James Foster was the contracted wicket-keeper and would have been selected for the 1st Test but for his injury.

"Now that Alec is available again, we see him as the leading candidate for the wicket-keeping job in James' absence. He is in good form this season, he understands the position with James and is determined to prove to the selectors that he has an international future.

"We had a lengthy discussion about the choice of extra batsman and looked at Ian Bell, David Fulton and Robert Key as well as John Crawley. With regard to Ian, he has matured a lot as a cricketer over the winter, but we feel that he hasn't always played on the best possible wickets so far this summer and therefore has been unable to spend a lot of time in the middle.

"John Crawley has been in outstanding form this season, is benefiting from being freed from the captaincy role and has also scored a Test hundred against Sri Lanka before.

"We feel that Dominic Cork's bowling suits the particular requirements of Lord's - especially if the wicket performs in the same way it has for the last two years. Dominic has been in good form for Derbyshire, is very fit and his action is now back to where it was three years ago. He deserves his place back in the squad.

"Alex Tudor has been troubled by injury in the past but he was a major benefactor of the National Academy's winter in Australia and has also been in good form this summer. He has been in and out of the Test side before, but we hope that he can now be a consistent performer for England.

Tickets are still available for the 1st npower Test via www.lords.org or through the ECB Ticket Hotline on 08705338833

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