Michael Clarke doubtful for VB Series

Australia made no changes to their 14-man squad that played the Chappell-Hadlee trophy against New Zealand, when they announced their squad for the VB Series. The only doubt was Michael Clarke, who was suffering from a sore right foot and was being carefully monitored by the team doctors.

The squad was picked with enough room for players to catch a breather. "The players we have chosen have been the nucleus of our one-day squad for some time and at this stage we felt there wasn't a great need to change things," said Trevor Hohns, the head of the national selection panel. "Choosing a 14-man squad will provide the opportunity for players who play both forms of the game, to have a break from time to time throughout the series.

However, it had not yet been decided who would rest and who would play. "We will make those decisions in conjunction with team management, as the series progresses."

Meanwhile Nathan Bracken has been picked for the Australia A squad for warm-up games against Pakistan at Adelaide. Bracken will replace Brett Lee for the limited-overs match on Wednesday and the Twenty20 contest on Thursday. Lee will rejoin the Australian camp on Monday following his selection in the 14-man VB Series squad today.

Australian squad 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Darren Lehmann, 6 Michael Clarke, 7 Andrew Symonds, , 8 Jason Gillespie, 9 Michael Kasprowicz, 10 Glenn McGrath, 11 Brett Lee, 12 Simon Katich, 13 Shane Watson, 14 Brad Hogg.