England call up Kirtley for one-day competition
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Your support makes all the difference.The Sussex bowler James Kirtley has been called up for England's one-day squad to compete in the triangular VB Series against Australia and Sri Lanka in December and January.
Kirtley's call-up follows Darren Gough's withdrawal from the touring party, and he will join the one-day specialists Ian Blackwell, Paul Collingwood, Ronnie Irani, Nick Knight, Owais Shah and Jeremy Snape as the additions for the limited-overs series. Yorkshire's Craig White, who was named as a one-day player, has since joined up with the Test squad to cover for injuries.
The remainder of the 16-man squad will be made up of Test players, who will be selected closer to the start of the series on 13 December.
"This will be my first playing tour of Australia and I am delighted to be a part of the squad," Kirtley said. "It really is a dream come true. It gives me the opportunity to play against some of the best players in the world on some of the best pitches in the world, so it is the ultimate test for me.
"It is sad that Goughie is unfit but it gives me a chance to show what I can do. I got married three weeks ago and I had planned a quiet winter at home. But this has now changed. It's been a great surprise."
Kirtley has had a chequered international career. Last year his limited-overs tour of Zimbabwe ended in cruel ejection after the legality of his action was called into question by a match referee. Then, after being cleared and recalled for the mid-summer NatWest Series campaign, his tenure was once again cut short when he broke his hand while practising. He won his place back for the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka two months ago, but did not feature in any of England's games.
The Yorkshire and England Michael Vaughan has insisted that the tourists are capable of battling their way back into the Ashes series.
"We are up against it. But we are trying hard and we hope we can turn it around in this game," Vaughan said prior to the start of the second Test in Adelaide this morning. He claimed there were encouraging signs for England even in the crushing first Test defeat in Brisbane.
"We had a little bit of nerves on the first day at Brisbane," Vaughan admitted. "But a real positive is that on the second day we dominated Australia for the whole day not too many teams do that. We got ourselves right back in the game, so we must take some confidence from the fact we had them on the rack on that second day."
England fulfilled everyone's predictions by losing at The Gabba but Vaughan is able to put a positive spin on that 384-run mauling. "In a funny way the result in Brisbane has relaxed everyone," he said. "They were far and away the favourites but with them winning the game there the pressure has been taken off a little bit."
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