England Plump for Ashes Quintet

The England coach Duncan Fletcher has confirmed that his side will play five bowlers in the upcoming Ashes series due to concerns over the workload of the captain Andrew Flintoff.

In Flintoff's absence, England played six batsmen and four bowlers during their 3-0 victory over Pakistan in the summer, but Fletcher says that they will revert to the quintet that was so fundamental to the Ashes success in 2005.

"We've got to look at five bowlers, especially now with Flintoff, with the workload he takes on," Fletcher said today. "If we were confident of him getting through a lot of overs we could probably look at [playing] four [bowlers], but with Flintoff not bowling many, we've got to go in with five bowlers."

Flintoff has bowled only five overs - during the recent Champions Trophy - for his country since having surgery in July, although he has declared himself fit. Playing five bowlers means that one of Alastair Cook, Ian Bell or Paul Collingwood will step down from the side that beat Pakistan, and with Flintoff, who for all his batting talent averages only 33 in Tests, at No6 it leaves England with a dangerously long tail.

There are legitimate concerns that Shane Warne in particular could regularly skittle a bottom five of Chris Read, Sajid Mahmood, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar, and that has led to Fletcher thinking the unthinkable: picking Ashley Giles ahead of Panesar. "That [the depth of batting] is the thing we've really got to look at the next couple of games we play in," he said. "I'm a strong believer, and it's been proven right before, that you have to bat in depth."