England have released Ashley Giles from their squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's which starts on Thursday (May 16), leaving them with a straight choice between Alex Tudor and Dominic Cork for the final place in the XI. Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, hinted on Tuesday that he was considering playing a spinner at Lord's, despite the ground's reputation for favouring seam bowlers. "We have not ruled out a spinner yet," he said. "Normally we would have done by now, but we've heard a few things and we're delaying our decision."

But whatever he had heard, it wasn't enough to persuade him that Giles was likely to pose any serious threat to the Sri Lankans, and he was released in time for him to travel to Edgbaston to play for Warwickshire against Hampshire.

With John Crawley passed fit to play after undergoing a vigorous test on his suspect back on Tuesday, England will field six specialist batsmen with allrounder Andy Flintoff at No. 7 and Alec Stewart faced with the prospect of batting at 8.

"From a selfish point of view, I want to bat higher, but if it means batting 8, so be it," said Stewart. ""Flintoff has just smacked a hundred in New Zealand and he's just smacked us [Surrey] for a hundred at The Oval."

Stewart was happy at being given another chance to impress the selectors after opting out of the winter tours. "I realise I am not the future. Two years ago I set the goal of being involved in the Ashes last summer. Now my target is to have one last crack at Australia and to play in the World Cup. After that is a huge question-mark. I would like to be able to retire rather than be told to go."

England 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain (capt), 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 John Crawley, 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Alec Stewart (wk), 9 Dominic Cork or Alex Tudor, 10 Andrew Caddick, 11 Matthew Hoggard.

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