England Lions

Andrew Strauss has been named as captain of the England Lions team to play India in their 3-day match. Owais Shah is the only other player over 25. The full squad is:

Andrew Strauss (captain), Tim Ambrose (wk), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Joe Denly, Graham Onions, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Chris Tremlett, Jonathan Trott.

No-one can quite be sure what is going through the selectors' minds, but I doubt they have their 6 batting slots for the 1st Test certain in their mind. A good knock by Strauss or Shah could see them back in the full team, with Bopara also having a chance, but returning from injury. If Strauss was to be dropped, Vaughan would have to return to opening which would add to the pressure of captaincy.

If you are wondering who Joe Denly is, you can see his Cricinfo profile here. A first class average of over 50 isn't a bad start - I presume that his real average would be pretty handy too!