England rule out Trescothick approach

National selector Geoff Miller will not attempt to coax opening batsman Marcus Trescothick out of retirement, but remains non-commital on England's other selection options.

Trescothick has been in superb form for Somerset since retiring from international cricket due to a stress-related illness, ensuring his name crops up whenever England find themselves with a batting crisis.

The innings-and-80-run defeat to Australia at Headingley over the weekend has created just such a situation, and on Tuesday Trescothick said he would listen to an approach from the England camp.

However Miller has now ruled out that option, insisting that he will not try to change the 33-year-old's mind.

"Marcus has many times said he's retired from international cricket, and until I hear contrary to that, he will not be a part of the selection process," Miller told Cricinfo.

"He knows where he is, he's really comfortable and playing really, really well, but he's retired from Test cricket so he's not a part of our thoughts at this moment in time."

But while Miller was willing to be assertive about Trescothick, he remains non-commital about everyone else.

Much of the talk this week has centred around 39-year-old Mark Ramprakash, who Miller says will enter the equation when the England management team sit down to discuss the squad for the Ashes decider at The Oval.

"Mark has not stated he's not available for international cricket, so we will discuss that," Miller said.

"It's not just my decision, it's a team decision, and we'll sit down as a unit. We have a consistency and continuity angle as far as selection policy is concerned and we try to stick to that as much as possible.

"But we do want to win this series, which is a matter of winning this game in a one-match situation, so it's a very difficult equation as [is the case with] all selection policies."

Miller will announce the squad at 9.30 on Sunday morning, and one batsman who will be holding his breath is Ravi Bopara after the number three endured a nightmare Test at Headingley.

Many expect Bopara to be given a much-needed break after four poor performances, but Miller insists that will not necessarily be the case.

"It's an option, certainly, and we'll strongly look at it, but you don't become a bad player overnight, just because you're in a bad trot," he said.

"It also depends what you are like mentally as well as technically. We'll look at it in discussion with the captain and coach, see what he's like in the changing room, and if it's necessary we'll go down that line.

"But we don't just make changes for the sake of making changes. Our meetings are not two-minute affairs, never have been, never will be.

"We'll look at every aspect of each game separately, and hopefully make the right decisions because this Test decides the series."

Andrew Flintoff is expected to return for the crunch clash, which gets underway on August 20, but the allrounder will first have to prove his fitness in the nets.

"It looks very favourable at the moment, but we'll wait and see what's happened in a couple of days," Miller said of Flintoff's situation.

"If it looks as though he can be selected in the squad then we will probably do that because the England side with Freddie playing in it at his best is a quality side, but we'll have to monitor it day by day and see how he performs in the nets, because he's got to do the workload required by the captain to