SHANE Warne will be named in Australia's Ashes Test squad when it is announced on Monday.

Hampshire's other overseas player for 2005, Simon Katich, is also expected to be named following his good performances, including a second Test century, on the recent three-Test tour of New Zealand.

Most of the Aussie squad, which is bidding for a fifth successive Ashes win in England and their eighth in a row in all - a remarkable run stretching back to 1989, picks itself.

The batting line-up should comprise skipper Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer, Damian Martyn and three players with Hampshire connections - Katich, Michael Clarke and Matthew Hayden.

Adam Gilchrist will be the number one wicket-keeper, as well as a potentially destructive middle-order batsman in the Tests, with Brad Haddin reserve glovesman.

Warne and Stuart MacGill will be the frontline spinners with pace provided by Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz and Brett Lee.

Rookie seamer Shaun Tait is expected to be named - even though in two championship matches for Durham in 2004 he sent down 18 overs for 176 runs, taking no wickets in the process and conceding 9.77 runs per over!

Sources in Australia suggest the final place in a 16-man squad will go to either another former Hampshire overseas player, all-rounder Shane Watson, or batsman Michael Hussey, a consistent run plunderer for Northants and Gloucestershire in county cricket in recent years.

Though Watson could be named in the one-day squad, Hussey could get the Ashes nod - doubts remain over Watson's fitness for the longer format.

There will be no place for the likes of Kent all-rounder Andrew Symonds, one of the most destructive batsmen in one-day world cricket, or Brad Hogg, who bagged well over a thousand runs for Leicestershire last summer.

Meanwhile, veteran batsmen Matthew Elliott and Michael Bevan - who have topped the run charts in the Australian four-day Pura Cup in the past two seasons -are nowhere near the Test scene.

Bevan, with a record-breaking eight Pura Cup tons for Tasmania this winter, has not played a Test since 1998 and has only ever played 18. Had he been English, his tally would no doubt have been 118!