England recall Irani for deciding Test

England named Essex all-rounder Ronnie Irani in their 14-man squad for the deciding fourth Test against India starting at The Oval on Thursday.

Irani, who replaced the injured Andrew Flintoff, played the last of his three Tests in 1999 against New Zealand.

There were also recalls for opening batsman Marcus Trescothick, who has recovered from the thumb injury that ruled him out of the first three matches of the series, and seam bowlers Steve Harmison and Dominic Cork.

Trescothick, Harmison and Cork will play one-day matches for their counties on Monday to test their fitness after recent problems.

"We want to give these three players some more match practice before the Test match and we should have a clearer picture of their fitness by Tuesday," chairman of selectors David Graveney said.

"Marcus Trescothick played yesterday in the C & G Final and suffered no reaction above the norm to his thumb injury. He was happy with the way he batted and felt fine in the field.

"The selectors discussed the likely shape of the team when we met earlier in the week and we were not inclined to play seven batsmen and four bowlers.

"This policy did not work for us against Sri Lanka at Lord's earlier in the summer and we feel that we will need a five-bowler combination for this Test.

With the series level at 1-1, Graveney said the selectors had decided not to name a second specialist spinner.

"Without having seen the wicket, we are not expecting a surface which is especially helpful to spin," Graveney added.

England squad:

Nasser Hussain (captain),
Mark Butcher,
Andrew Caddick,
Dominic Cork,
John Crawley,
Ashley Giles,
Stephen Harmison,
Matthew Hoggard,
Ronnie Irani,
Robert Key,
Alec Stewart,
Marcus Trescothick,
Alex Tudor,
Michael Vaughan

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