Flower still thinking about Vaughan
Michael Vaughan could still play in the Ashes
Also In The News
|
Alan Shearer is still without a win as Newcastle United boss after a 3-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield. |  |
Monday, 04, May 2009 08:54
England team director has told former captain Michael Vaughan that he is still in his plans for the Ashes series.
Vaughan has not been selected for the first Test match against the West Indies starting at Lords on Wednesday and that the age of 34, some have seen his omission as possibly being the end of his Test career.
But Flower has assured Vaughan that he still has a very good chance of facing Australia later this summer if he scores big runs for his county Yorkshire.
"Michael Vaughan is a quality player and a quality bloke - we want to see him scoring heaps of runs and pushing to get into the Ashes Test series," said Flower.
"He could have a great few years left in cricket. But he had a tough summer in all sorts of ways last year and we are only a few weeks into this season.
"He has worked really hard on his game, he is as fit as I have ever seen him, and is very clear about his game. He just needs to get some runs on the board."
Ian Bell was another player surprisingly left out of the Test team in favour of Ravi Bopara, who will bat at number three against the West Indies.
Flower acknowledged that Bell had made a "lovely start to the season" by hitting two centuries for Warwickshire, but wanted to see the 27-year-old score more first-class runs before bringing him back into the Test team.