England picked former captain Michael Vaughan on Thursday in a 25-man performance squad from which its Ashes team will be drawn. The 34-year-old Vaughan captained England to a series victory over Australia four years ago but has not played internationally since stepping down from the role in August. Vaughan joins Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen as former Test captains in an experienced squad containing all 12 centrally contracted players. Yorkshire's 21-year-old spinner Adil Rashid is the only uncapped player in a squad that will also provide the team to play West Indies in a two-Test series. Andrew Strauss, meanwhile, is adamant he has no qualms about being left out of hosts England's squad for the upcoming World Twenty20, even though he's the captain of his country's Test and one-day teams. “In Twenty20 you need the power player and that is not necessarily a strength of mine,” Strauss said. “I felt quite strongly that whoever captains any team should be worth their place in the side.” Squad: Tim Ambrose, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, James Foster, Stephen Harmison, Robert Key, Amjad Khan, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Sajid Mahmood, Monty Panesar, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Matthew Prior, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Andrew Strauss, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Michael Vaughan, Luke Wright.
