article_snippet: It seems certain that Jonathan Trott, now returned to full fitness after leaving England’s last Ashes tour with a condition later diagnosed as situational anxiety, will return after a successful tour of South Africa as Lions captain.
article_snippet: England’s Test middle order is settled following the success of Gary Ballance, Joe Root and Ian Bell in the three successive victories over India last summer, leaving Trott to battle Sam Robson to become Alastair Cook’s opening partner.
article_snippet: Alastair Cook, sacked as one-day captain on the brink of the World Cup, returns to action for MCC against Yorkshire in Abu Dhabi starting on Sunday and will then seek to build on the progress made by England in Test cricket last summer.
article_snippet: Jonny Bairstow, one of the casualties of the fall-out from the last Ashes, is favourite to tour as reserve wicketkeeper ahead of Kent’s exciting Sam Billings, while Adil Rashid and James Tredwell will compete for the other spin place.
article_snippet: Rashid, a more mature performer than when Rashid was thrust into the England squad prematurely in 2009, looked a certainty to tour until Rashid bowled poorly for the Lions in South Africa and may now be pipped by James TredwellJames Tredwell.
article_snippet: Cook (Essex, capt), Robson (Middlesex), Ballance (Yorkshire), Bell (Warwickshire), Root (Yorkshire), Moeen (Worcestershire) or Ansari (Surrey), Buttler (Lancashire), Woakes (Warwickshire) or Wood (Durham), Jordan (Sussex), Broad (Nottinghamshire), Anderson (Lancashire), Trott (Warwickshire), Bairstow (Yorkshire), Plunkett (Yorkshire), Rashid (Yorkshire) or Tredwell (Kent).
highlights_snippet: Squad for three-Test series set to be announced on Wednesday .