Australia named a familiar looking squad today for this year's Ashes defence in England, resisting the temptation to make any radical changes following last month's series loss to India.
Australia's selectors kept faith with the players that rocketed them to the top of the world rankings, announcing a predictable 16-man team for the five tests and a 14-man team for the triangular one-day series with England and Pakistan.
The Australian Cricket Board's four-man selection panel appointed Steve Waugh as captain with wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist his deputy.
There were no new faces in the squad with each member having already represented Australia in either form of the game. A total of 19 players were selected for the tour with 11 picked to play both tests and one-dayers.
Australia have not lost a test series to England since 1986-87 but chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said he was expecting this year's series to be a real challenge. "We know this tour will be a tough assignment as England is playing with confidence on the back of four successive test series wins," Hohns said.
The only player dropped from the test side beaten 2-1 by India was fast bowler Michael Kasprowicz. He was chosen for the Indian tour when Brett Lee pulled out injured but lost his place to Lee for the Ashes.
With fast bowler Jason Gillespie also facing a fitness test, the selectors added another two quick bowlers to the squad in left-arm paceman Nathan Bracken and seamer Damien Fleming.
Promising Western Australian middle-order batsman Simon Katich was also recalled to the team as a spare batsman.
Predictably, Australia named Shane Warne and Colin Miller as their two spinners, omitting the unlucky Stuart MacGill, but did break with at least two other conventions.
They chose only two specialists openers, Matthew Hayden and Michael Slater, for the first time in 24 years and only one specialist wicket-keeper in Gilchrist for the first time since 1961.
The Australians will travel to Britain at the end of May with their opening match against Worcestershire starting on June 1. The tour concludes with the fifth Ashes test at The Oval in London in the last week of August.
Test squad:Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist (vice-captain), Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Jason Gillespie, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Simon Katich, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Colin Miller, Ricky Ponting, Michael Slater, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh.
One-day squad:Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist (vice-captain), Michael Bevan, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh.