Michael Vaughan has an unchanged squad for the second Test against Australia © Getty Images

England have named an unchanged squad for the second Test against Australia, starting on Thursday at Edgbaston. Despite their comprehensive 239-run defeat at Lord's the selectors have resisted the urge to tinker with the 12-man squad, instead sticking with the policy of continuity which has served the team well over the past two years. Chris Tremlett, the Hampshire seamer, retains his place in the squad but is again likely to be the paceman to miss out on the final XI.

Despite all the pre-match optimism England were soundly beaten at Lord's, with only Steve Harmison and Kevin Pietersen performing to their best. There had been speculation that Paul Collingwood, the Durham allrounder, would be drafted into the squad following three consecutive hundreds in county cricket but England will retain the same balance to their team as they had at Lord's.

David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, said: "The selectors met on the Monday after the Lord's Test and looked at the way we played and identified the obvious plus points including bowling Australia out twice, Harmison's bowling, and Pietersen's batting.

"Obviously there were areas we needed to improve on in order to win the game, but the conclusion of the selectors was that we wanted to stick with the same squad for the second Ashes Test.

"We don't believe that there's any need to change the team, clearly we are disappointed that the result of the first Test went against us, but we still have strong belief in the squad that was selected."

England squad Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan (capt), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones (wk), Ashley Giles, Simon Jones, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Chris Tremlett.