England to fly a 16-man ‘clone’ team as cover for Ashes defence

MELBOURNE - In a stunning and innovative move England coach Andy Flower plans to fly an unprecedented 32 players, including a 16-man B-team Down Under.

Flower remembers England’s disastrous Ashes tour of 2002-03, when bowlers Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Darren Gough all broke down, and believes that the “England Performance Program” squad, which will based in Brisbane and Perth, should be ready to step in as cover for any member of the “First Team” in the event of poor form or injury.

It effectively means every Test player will have a clone who can replace him at short notice, Fox Sports reports.

The squad includes Craig Kieswetter, Ajmal Shahzad and James Tredwell, all of whom have represented the top side in the past year.

To ensure the players are fit and firing, the B-team will play four-day matches against Queensland and Western Australia.

England performance director David Parsons said the squad “allows our coaches to work intensively with the players and assess their readiness to graduate to the full England side when the opportunity arises”. (ANI)