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| As expected the selectors have shown faith in Alastair Cook despite his lean run |
England have made the almost unprecedented move of naming their final XI for the third Test against Pakistan at The Oval three days before the match after selecting an unchanged unit for the third game in a row.
As expected Alastair Cook was retained at the top of the order despite his lean run this season, while Tim Bresnan will leave Yorkshire's Championship match against Durham on Tuesday to act as bowling cover, before rejoining his county on Wednesday if there are no last-minute alarms for England. Ajmal Shahzad, who was originally named in the squad for the first Test at Trent Bridge, was left in Championship action again, with Yorkshire to allow him to work on his game.
It is normal practice for Andrew Strauss to keep his XI under wraps until shortly before the toss, but such is the confidence in the side after six consecutive Test victories that they haven't felt the need to even keep Pakistan guessing, although there were never likely to be any changes.
"We were delighted with the way the team performed at Edgbaston in the second Test," Geoff Miller, the national selector said. "To put together dominant performances in back-to-back Test matches is a credit to the team's hard work but the key remains consistency throughout the duration of the series."
The one major concern that currently surrounds the squad is the form of Cook, who has made just 41 runs in four innings during this series. However, the selectors are keen to show loyalty to their key players and Cook has credit in the bank from how he performed in South Africa and Bangladesh during the winter.
"We back Alastair to come through this tough patch he is having," Miller told Sky Sports News. "It is a challenging time for him. But we know what he is like as a character - he is a battler and will battle his way through it.
"He scored runs in Bangladesh - that is not so long ago - and we know full well how hard he will try and how determined he is to cross this bridge. He will do it, I am sure."
Cook turned out for Essex on Friends Provident t20 finals day at The Rose Bowl and hit 38 off 22 balls in the semi-final, but now faces a vital two weeks with Tests at The Oval and Lord's on what are expected to be better batting surfaces than the ones at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston. If Cook fails to turn his form around, he would then have only the end of the season with Essex to find some form so that he could board the plane for Australia with confidence.
