Strauss in Line for Test Recall Following Warm-up Call

Andrew Strauss is expected to win a recall to England's line-up for their first Test against New Zealand next week after being named in the side to face a Select XI in their final warm-up match.

England have usually chosen a team as close as possible to their Test side in the final warm-up game, and today selected Strauss ahead of his Middlesex team-mate Owais Shah for the three-day match at the University Oval, which starts tonight.

But Strauss has played down the significance of his selection, saying: "This isn't the Test line-up yet, so it's a bit early to assume things. Owais has shown a lot of form in county cricket for a long time and he's done pretty well in the one-dayers. He'll be pretty keen to get an opportunity in the Test team but that's always the case on tours - there are 15 or 16 players vying for 11 places."

Shah top-scored with 96 in the two-day match against an Invitational side earlier this week, but the selectors have chosen Strauss to bat at No3, while keeping the opening partnership between Alastair Cook and Michael Vaughan intact from the match against Sri Lanka before Christmas. If the Select side is chosen for the Test, which begins in Hamilton on March 5, Shah would again be left on the sidelines after he lost out in a similar battle with Ravi Bopara for the Sri Lanka tour.

Strauss was dropped for the Sri Lanka matches after a run of 25 Test innings without a century, but the 30-year-old appears to have been rewarded for going to New Zealand to play for Northern Districts before the start of England's tour. The Hampshire seamer Chris Tremlett has also been selected and faces a straight bowl-out with Steve Harmison - who is less sure of his place following an inconsistent display in the two-day match - for a place in the Test line-up. England will continue to assess Ryan Sidebottom's fitness after he sustained a right hamstring strain in Saturday's final one-day international. The tourists are hopeful he will recover for the Test, but have Stuart Broad and James Anderson waiting in reserve.

England's final change to their line-up is to move Ian Bell back from No3, where he batted in Sri Lanka, to No5 - a position he has not batted in since making his debut against the West Indies at the Oval four years ago. One-day captain Paul Collingwood drops to No6 while new wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose will bat at No7.

England XI to face Select XI: M Vaughan (Yorkshire, capt), A Cook (Essex), A Strauss (Middlesex), K Pietersen (Hampshire), I Bell (Warwickshire), P Collingwood (Durham), T Ambrose (Warwickshire, wkt), C Tremlett (Hampshire), M Hoggard (Yorkshire), S Harmison (Durham), M Panesar (Northamptonshire).