ENGLAND’S selectors have stunned the Kent camp by dropping batsman Rob Key from their first squad of the summer to face Bangladesh at Lord’s from May 26.

Key, who toured South Africa in the winter, started his 2005 championship campaign with a bang by scoring a painstaking 164 against Gloucestershire in Bristol a fortnight ago, but otherwise his first-class scores have not reflected his good form.

He hit 54 on the Friday of Kent’s draw with Hampshire, but good deliveries and excellent catches, as with Kevin Pietersen’s full-length diving effort at St Lawrence, had dogged Key’s progress.

“It is quite a shock and has undoubtedly knocked him back a little,” said Kent’s director of coaching Graham Ford and Sunday morning’s squad announcement.

“I think ‘Keysy’ felt fairly secure in the squad as he was in possession of the shirt so to speak and in recent years they have shown good consistency and loyalty in selection.

“It is very hard on ‘Keysy’ and worrying for him too, because he has looked in good form.

“The century in Bristol was made in very testing conditions and in other matches it has taken some very good deliveries to prize him out.”

Key’s place in the squad goes to Warwickshire’s Ian Bell who forced his way into the selection debate by scoring a county record 480 first-class runs in April at an average of 80.33

Ford added: “I believe there are some doubts over Andrew Flintoff’s fitness to bowl long spells, so the fact that Bell bowls a few seamers may have given him the edge over Rob.”

The England selectors have, however, staid faithful with Key’s Kent team-mate Geraint Jones who keeps his place behind the stumps despite patchy early season form with bat and gloves.

England squad: Vaughan, Bell, Trescothick, Strauss, Thorpe, Flintoff, G Jones, Giles, Hoggard, Harmison, Lewis, S Jones.