England will not include extra batting cover when they name their squad for the third npower Ashes Test.

Warwickshire batsman Ian Bell is expected to be injury-victim Kevin Pietersen's replacement at his Edgbaston county headquarters while Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar will offer alternative bowling options.

Bell, 27, was axed during the winter tour to the Caribbean but has churned out the runs in Division One of the LV County Championship.

Disappointingly, having piled up 640 runs in seven matches, he failed twice in the draw with Hampshire this week.

England coach Andy Flower publicly acknowledged Bell as the man in waiting for batting berths in the Test team in the aftermath of the Lord's Test win, which put the hosts 1-0 up in the series.

"There are no injury problems as such, so we probably won't need to do that," national selector Geoff Miller said, of the possibility of naming further batsmen.

"We had question marks to cover in the last squad but I don't foresee needing to do that here.

"If we needed to draft someone in for any reason, we know who we would be looking at and have provision to do that at short notice."

Lord's man of the match Andrew Flintoff remains intent on getting through his final series in Test cricket, no matter what the consequences are, although he has experienced pain in his troublesome right knee since his Monday morning heroics.

He will be checked by the medical staff before the first net session in Birmingham next Tuesday.

His close friend Harmison was named as standby for the Lord's match due to their similar velocity with the ball and will compete for a place at Edgbaston along with left-arm spinner Panesar.

With wet weather scuppering pitch preparation and leaving the surface "like jelly", according to groundsman Steve Rouse, no one can forecast what to expect as Australia try to force their way back into the campaign.

Traditionally, under-prepared pitches encourage teams to re-enforce their batting but, with Flintoff at number seven, Stuart Broad at eight and Graeme Swann at nine, England appear comfortable.

"We have all bases covered so that, whatever conditions we turn up to, we have players to complement them," Miller said.

"There is a lot of time and a lot of weather between now and then, and we will keep monitoring it."

Meanwhile, England named three uncapped players in Michael Lumb, Graham Napier and Joe Denly in their provisional 30-man squad for the Champions Trophy.

Flintoff and Pietersen, whose return from Achilles surgery is not expected until a fortnight before the September 21 departure for South Africa at the earliest, were also included.

The squad will be cut in half by August 23 - although injured players can be replaced afterwards at the discretion of the International Cricket Council.

Probable Test squad: AJ Strauss (captain), AN Cook, RS Bopara, IR Bell, PD Collingwood, MJ Prior (wkt), A Flintoff, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, JM Anderson, G Onions, SJ Harmison, MS Panesar.