England matchwinner Graeme Swann cannot help dreaming about the Ashes even though he knows it is taboo.

Recalled duo Ian Bell and Ryan Sidebottom will conceivably be doing the same, buoyed by their selection today for the second match of the npower series starting next Thursday.

However, despite having the occasional casual team discussion about how they are going to tackle the Australians in this summer's main event, the scheduling is so heavy that players have been reminded there are other things to concentrate on.

"Well, I'm not allowed to ... but of course I do," said Swann, who hit a maiden Test half-century and took six wickets in the crushing win at Lord's, of thinking about the prospect of facing the old enemy.

"It's not just a party line when we say we've got to focus on the cricket we're playing now - because obviously if you don't and you play badly you're not going to be in the Ashes.

"But every time you go to sleep at night, it's always there at the back of your mind.

"I'm no different from anyone else. But I know that to get there in the first place I've got to carry on performing in this series, in the Twenty20, in the one-dayers - because it only takes two or three bad games and you're consigned to the scrap-heap again, while they look for another off-spinner to come and take your place. I'm not going to let that happen.

"But sure ... at the back of my mind, I want an MBE - like the rest."

Thirty-year-old Swann's incredible rise to prominence, since his debut in India last winter, has strengthened the potential for England employing two spinners against the Aussies.

He has taken 33 wickets in just six Tests to date and such a ratio has put him well on course to equal Ian Botham and Fred Trueman's feat of completing a half-century of victims inside 10 Tests - fellow off-spinner Jim Laker took a dozen matches.

An example of how his stock has risen in such a short period of time came when he and the England management pinpointed the one-day series against the West Indians in the Caribbean as a time to have elbow surgery.

Such is his worth in the current Test attack that captain Andrew Strauss surprisingly threw him the new ball at Lord's on Thursday.

Having previously operated alongside Monty Panesar at Northamptonshire, Swann has surpassed his former county colleague in the Test standings by maturing into his role.

"I wasn't good enough 10 years ago," Swann conceded. "Even three or four years ago, after going to Nottingham, I was still really discovering my game.

"I'm delighted. I wouldn't change anything going back. There were a few rough years, but I think they've all added together and made me a better bowler.

"I always had in the back of my mind that I could play (Test cricket), because when I used to play against the overseas players - invariably Test players - I had a knack of getting them out and bowling well at them.

"I've only played against two international teams in Test cricket - one being the best players of spin in the world in India and then the West Indies - so I've had a steep learning curve. But I think I've dealt with it quite well.

"Three or four years ago, I still wasn't equipped to do that. I still bowled too many bad balls, but I think I'm slowly eradicating them."

Panesar has been omitted from the Test party gathering at Chester-le-Street tomorrow night given the time of year and the fact the pitches up there are favourable to seamers.

But the selectors have kept their options open by adding Warwickshire batsman Bell and Nottinghamshire left-armer Sidebottom to the mix.

Their presence provides an extra option in both batting and bowling departments.

And if the ball is expected to jag around, a return to the side for Bell is a strong possibility: greater batting depth is necessary on sporting pitches and that would mean picking six specialists.

Such a policy would make England harder to defeat and in effect be replicating West Indies' defensive ploys from the winter - only an away victory can prevent Andrew Strauss' men regaining the Wisden Trophy.

Bell was axed after the Test defeat in Jamaica three months ago

but responded with the County Championship's first hundred of the season.

While Sidebottom, whose tour of the Caribbean was cut short by a chronic Achilles injury, has proved his fitness in two rounds of the Championship.

"Both Bell and Sidebottom have been in form in the early part of the season and have been a part of the England set up in recent years," said national selector Geoff Miller. "Ryan Sidebottom has recovered from surgery after the Caribbean tour and reports that he is now bowling pain free."