Ramprakash Favourite For Thorpe's Place

Surrey colleague Mark Ramprakash is favourite to fill in for Thorpe in the Test squad.

England selectors will also be announcing the one-day squad, who will face Australia and Sri Lanka in a tri-series.

Thorpe pulled out of the five-Test tour just a fortnight after convincing the selectors of his commitment to the cause, following a turbulent nine months in his personal life.

The selectors will also have considered the cases of Kent's Robert Key, Nick Knight and Ian Ward.

Knight topped the County Championship averages this past summer while Surrey's Ward scored more first-class runs than anybody else.

But Ramprakash's proven record against the Australians should result in yet another recall.

In a dozen matches he has averaged 42.41, registering only his second Test century the last time he faced them, 133 at The Oval a little over a year ago.

Meanwhile, the one-day party is unlikely to be drastically different to the initial squad named to compete in the current ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka.

The five players who missed out with varying degrees of injury - Darren Gough, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood and Craig White - should be fit enough for December.

Somerset's Ian Blackwell could be given a chance to stake a claim to be one of the 15 names England's selectors and his slow left-arm bowling could pressurise either Ashley Giles or more likely Jeremy Snape.

Possible squad: N Hussain (Essex, capt), M Trescothick (Somerset), N Knight (Warwickshire), M Vaughan (Yorkshire), R Irani (Essex), P Collingwood (Durham), A Flintoff (Lancashire), J Snape (free agent) or O Shah (Middlesex), I Blackwell (Somerset), A Giles (Warwickshire), D Gough (Yorkshire), A Caddick (Somerset), M Hoggard (Yorkshire), A Stewart (Surrey), C White (Yorkshire).