England squad for the Ashes series:

Andrew Strauss (captain)
James Anderson
Ian Bell
Ravinder Bopara
Tim Bresnan
Stuart Broad
Paul Collingwood
Alastair Cook
Andrew Flintoff
Graham Onions
Monty Panesar
Kevin Pietersen
Matt Prior
Adil Rashid
Ryan Sidebottom
Graeme Swann

Looking through that squad I don't see any involvement for either Rashid or Bresnan. Especially Bresnan to be honest as I don't see what he offers at Test level.

Bell is probably only there to make up the numbers, however, if Bopara is struggling, Bell is probably better placed to come into the starting XI than others such as Vaughan, Key or Shah.

Similarly with Panesar, I can't see him displacing Swann from the starting XI for the first couple of Tests. However, if the Aussies work him out pretty quickly, you can rely on Panesar to come in and do a job, especially on the English wickets. Probably what shades it for Swann is his batting and his variation. Not sure how much work Panesar has done on the latter but he has little hope of competing with Swann with bat in hand.

Probably the only selection headache for Flower/Strauss is Onions or Sidebottom. Both have done well against poorer performing Test nations (WI/NZ most notably) and although Sidebottom has more experience, I think I'd go for Onions initially. He is taking wickets for fun at County level, something Sidebottom hasn't had the opportunity to do with coming back from injury and almsot immediately joining up with the T20 squad. Given the poor performance from ENgland in the tournament, I think it would have been more beneficial for Sidebottom to have just got in some County Championship form with Notts.

Based on that, for the first Test I'd go with:

Strauss
Cook
Bopara
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior
Flintoff
Swann
Broad
Anderson
Onions

How has Bresnan got in ahead of Harmison?

Pleasantly surprised by that, hopefully it means they have washed their hands of Harmison for good, at long last.

Despite the fact he has been in excellent form this season?

Like he was last season.

We've seen this pattern before, he gets dropped, does well for his county, gets recalled, does OK when he first comes back to the test team, drops off again sharpishly.

He's had his time, we have to move on and give some younger players a chance to establish themselves rather than have them just keeping Harmison's place warm until he can be d again.

Interesting selections for the Lions and England XI games, looks like they are giving Onions and Rashid a chance to show they can cause the Aussies some problems and win test spots, though it could be argued that they should be kept away from the Aussies so they don't have experience of playing them come the first test.

England team v Warwickshire at Edgbaston (1-3 July):

Andrew Strauss (captain), James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ravi Bopara, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wk), Graeme Swann.

England Lions v Australia at Worcester (1-4 July):

Ian Bell (captain) (Warwickshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Joe Denly (Kent), Steven Davies (wk) (Worcestershire), Stephen Harmison (Durham), Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire), Stephen Moore (Worcestershire), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Graham Onions (Durham), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Vikram Solanki (Worcestershire).

Not sure that there's anything to be gained from hiding Rashid and Onions from the Aussies. It will be a useful trial for both of them. And both Harmisom and mahmood could play themselves into contention.

If he is bowling well he should be in the squad, he has genuine pace and bounce and seems to be bowling with agression. He does have issues but for instance comparing him to Bresnan it's a non brainer when you look at form this season.

ricky ponting. brett lee.

I don't think Bresnan is the right comparison, he is in the squad as he offers more with the bat as well, and might help provide balance to the team if needed.

Harmison is obviously an out and out bowler, but if we recall him every time he has a good few weeks how are other, younger players who haven't got a history of letting England down ever going to mature into test performers when they keep getting dropped to make way for him?

Correct. Plus, Harmison isn't good enough anyway. Ponting and Hughes would have absolutely slaughtered him.

And that, for me, hits the nail squarely on the head.
The last time he was in the England team he wasnt even bowling particularly fast...Anderson, Broad, Sidebottom, Flintoff are all way ahead of him and neither Onions nor Bresnan have done anything wrong in their 2 tests to date...I applaud the selectors for this squad

Which younger bowlers are these then? Okay there is Onions and Broad but Harmison could easily have come in for Sidebottom.

When Harmison gets it right he is arguably our best bowler, right now in the CC he is getting it right more often than not.

The major issue with Harmison IMO is his mental fragility. One bad performance and he disappears back into his sulky shell for the rest of the series.