Stephen Harmison remains in England’s plans for the Ashes series, ready to be unleashed on Australia when conditions are in his favour.

Although Graham Onions was preferred in the 13-man squad for the first Test, Geoff Miller, the national selector, said that Harmison’s pace and bounce could yet have a role to play in the series, which begins in Cardiff on Wednesday.

Playing for England Lions against the Australians at Worcester last week, Harmison took six wickets and twice bounced out Phillip Hughes, the prodigious opening batsman from whom Australia are expecting so much.

“We’ve seen what Steve can do and we need him to go away and continue to do that, because there might be a surface later in the series that requires his type of bowler,” Miller said yesterday. “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon and there are four more Test matches. If it’s a wicket that’s quick and bouncy, then we might take that into consideration.”

The pitch in Cardiff is expected to be slow and conditions at Lord’s for the second Test are likely to offer more pace and bounce. Harmison was left out of England’s 16-man squad for their pre-Ashes camp, but Miller confirmed that the Durham fast bowler’s calculated assault on Hughes had brought him back into contention.

“It did come into the discussion, what we saw from him the other day was very encouraging,” Miller said. “It showed us an area where the opposition might have susceptibilities. But we’ve got other bowlers who can bang it in as well, like Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff.”

It took England’s selectors only half an hour at Worcester on Saturday to finalise their squad for the first Test. Ian Bell was included as batting cover, while Monty Panesar has been selected, even though he has taken only nine first-class wickets this season, including three for England in their warm-up match against Warwickshire last week. Barring injury, either Panesar or Onions will take the final place in a five-man bowling attack, alongside Broad, Flintoff, James Anderson and Graeme Swann.

Miller conceded that Panesar has been some way below his best this season, but insisted that he would be ready to face Australia. “By his own admission, he’s not been bowling as well as he could,” Miller said. “But he’s been getting better and better. His confidence is not there to the extent it was when he was bowling sides out. But he’s getting there and he’s not far away now.”

The claims of Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire leg spinner, were considered by the selectors, but Miller said that the 21-year-old remains “a little way off” the Test side at the moment. At Worcester, Rashid made a halfcentury in the first innings, but took only one wicket.

The decision on whether to play two spinners will be taken on Wednesday morning, depending on the weather and the state of the pitch in Cardiff. The situation is complicated because this will be the first Test match to be played at the SWALEC Stadium.

“We’ll take a look on the morning of the game, we’ll take advice from people who know what the surface is like,” Miller said. “If it turns, so be it, but if it’s not a turning wicket, we’ll go with the seamers. Whatever we find, we’ll be ready for that.”

The suspicion remains that England will be hoping for a spin-friendly pitch in Cardiff to exploit their superiority in slow bowling. Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, has been studying statistics of the performances of spin bowlers in county cricket in Cardiff this season, but he has only one specialist slow bowler, Nathan Hauritz, to call upon. “You try to find out areas where you can play one up against the opposition and in the spin department, I think we’re in that position,” Miller said.

As England’s players gathered in Cardiff last night, Harmison must steel himself to take wickets in Durham’s next game, against Yorkshire, which starts at Headingley Carnegie on Friday. But Bell, who captained the Lions at Worcester, believes that Australia will be happy that Harmison is not in Cardiff.

“I’m sure they will be,” Bell said. “When he is in top form, he is one of the best bowlers in the world. If he stays in this sort of form, there will be some sort of cricket for him this summer.”