Five players who were unlucky to miss out on England's Ashes squad

Rory Burns

Burns' consistency went unrewarded once again

For the past few years, Rory Burns has been the epitome of consistency at Surrey. While he has often been overshadowed by bigger names such as Kevin Pietersen and Kumar Sangakkara, the opening batsman has still gone about his business and continued to churn out the runs that he hoped would one day guarantee him a spot in the England line-up.

The respect he has engendered has only risen in the past few seasons. Four consecutive seasons in which he has scored at least 1,000 runs has helped become the vice-captain of Surrey and establish himself as one of the most integral cogs in the Surrey machine. this season as well, he finished with over 1,000 runs and only two batsmen in Division 1 have scored more.

With no one really impressing as an opening partner for Alastair Cook, this looked like his year, but the selectors went with his teammate Mark Stoneman, who had already played a few Tests this summer. With no reserve opener in the Ashes squad, the 27-year-old can consider himself very unlucky to not have been picked this time around.