Flintoff and Warne lead the charge
Cricinfo's readers pick their Ashes XI
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Ten of the 11 players in the side faced no competition. The only contest was for the last bowling place, for which Steve Harmison, with 2710 votes, beat Brett Lee, with 2509. Andrew Strauss, with his century at the Oval, made a late surge, but his 2043 votes weren't enough to keep out Marcus Trescothick (3826) or Justin Langer (2885). Ricky Ponting, with 3809 votes, got the most votes among the other batsmen, but was barely in the running for the captaincy: Michael Vaughan got 2705 votes to Ponting's 937, with Shane Warne gathering 540.
Cricinfo's staffers carried out a similar internal poll among themselves, and came up with exactly the same team. Our readers, it would seem, get the writers they deserve. Vaughan was our captain as well, and, interestingly, more of us voted for Warne as captain than for Ponting. But in the imaginary match in which our notional Ashes XI will play, both men will have to listen to Vaughan.
Your team is below. And if you have strong views about the shape of Test cricket and its future, do take part in our survey, "Shaking up Test cricket".
| Position | Player | Votes |
| 1 | Justin Langer | 2885 |
| 2 | Marcus Trescothick | 3846 |
| 3 | Ricky Ponting |
3809 |
| 4 | Michael Vaughan (c) | 3584 |
| 5 | Kevin Pietersen | 3335 |
| 6 | Andrew Flintoff | 4524 |
| 7 | Adam Gilchrist (wk) | 3317 |
| 8 | Shane Warne | 4526 |
| 9 | Simon Jones | 3772 |
| 10 | Steve Harmison | 2710 |
| 11 | Glenn McGrath | 3283 |
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