Five Nottinghamshire players have been included in England’s 30-man performance squad for the 2013 summer international season.
Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Alex Hales, Samit Patel and Michael Lumb are all included but James Taylor's omission has prompted Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell to reason that his Test debut may have arrived too early.
"I don't think he was quite ready to play Test cricket last year and if Ravi Bopara had not pulled out for personal reasons he would not have played," said Newell.
“He just needs a bit longer to develop his game but I'm very confident he is going to be a high run-scorer for the next two or three years."
Taylor will be keen to vastly exceed the 608 LV= County Championship runs amssed in his first year in Division One.
“The players included in this squad reflect the progress they have made with senior England teams and the England Lions over the last twelve months,” said National Selector Geoff Miller.
“All of the players named in the EPS squad have been involved with one or more of the England squads during the winter, with the exception of Chris Tremlett who has been going through a rehabilitation process.”
The squad serves as an indicator of those players most likely to feature in England’s plans although Taylor will look to test that theory.
Nottinghamshire are the only county represented by five players.
2013 England Performance Squad
Alastair Cook (Essex) Test and One-Day Captain
Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire) T20 Captain
James Anderson (Lancashire)
Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Ian Bell (Warwickshire)
Ravi Bopara (Essex)
Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire)
Danny Briggs (Hampshire)
Jos Buttler (Somerset)
Nick Compton (Somerset)
Jade Dernbach (Surrey)
Steven Finn (Middlesex)
Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire)
James Harris (Middlesex)
Craig Kieswetter (Somerset)
Michael Lumb (Nottinghamshire)
Stuart Meaker (Surrey)
Eoin Morgan (Middlesex)
Graham Onions (Durham)
Monty Panesar (Sussex)
Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire)
Kevin Pietersen (Surrey)
Matt Prior (Sussex)
Joe Root (Yorkshire)
Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire)
James Tredwell (Kent)
Chris Tremlett (Surrey)
Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire)
Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)
Luke Wright (Sussex)