Blackham is an excellent pick. Good that Fred Spofforth is not in your team.
I had a wealth of choices at wicketkeeper, primarily looking at glovemanship. I shortlisted 4 - all Aussies:
*Rod Marsh, has the second most dismissals in Ashes history (just 4 behind Healy), and would be the best batsman of the remaining keepers.
*Don Tallon, the keeper Bradman chose in his all-time XI.
*Bert Oldfield, has the most stumpings in Ashes history and was regarded as absolutely brilliant with the gloves. Had an iconic moment in Ashes history when he was struck in the head while batting during the Bodyline series. That hit sparked the nastiness between the two countries really, up to that point the Aussies were copping it relatively well.
Instead I went back to the first ever Ashes Test where Australia selected 22 year old Jack Blackham, the bearded Victorian.
Jack Blackham
For his abilities with the gloves, Blackham became known as the "prince of wicket-keepers". When WG Grace was asked who the greatest keeper he'd ever seen was, he answered, 'Don't be silly, there has only been one?Jack Blackham'. The Doctor described Blackham thusly:
His reliability as a wicket-keeper was marvellous. Clean, quick as lightning, and quiet, he stood as close to the wickets as the laws of cricket permit and took the fastest bowling with consummate ease. To stand up to Spofforth's fastest bowling was in itself an achievement, but to keep wicket
against the Demon without permitting a bye to pass was a phenomenal performance. The bats-man who stirred out of his ground when Blackham was at the wicket knew he had to hit the ball or his innings was over. There was no element of chance in Blackham's stumping ; it was a case of inevitability.
Blackham did 3 things to change the game: 1) he regularly stood up to the stumps to Demon Spofforth, the Australian's fastest bowler; 2) before Blackham the long stop was a standard position to ensure byes weren't expensive, but for Blackham it wasn't required - he was too efficient; 3) Blackham also perfected the art of taking the bails off in a quick, smooth motion. Not sure what they were doing before that
...but that's what history tells me anyway!
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I am a tad disappointed that you went for Bannerman. You should have grabbed a certain England opener of 1900s from Surrey or a certain middle order batsman former England captain from Worcestershire who played at around the same time.
I had too many options! My 5th specialist batsmen could have been anyone as Rhodes or Noble can open, so I was considering all sorts of names. Might as well mention them since it's the last pick:
*Clem Hill - contemporary of Victor Trumper who scored more runs at a better average than the legendary Trumper, even scored attractively and quickly, yet he doesn't get the same credit. But
Fenil picked him 
*Graham Gooch - he didn't play Alderman too well, and his first few Ashes series were awful, but eventually Gooch pulled himself together. In 3 separate Ashes series he scored 400+ runs at 50+ average. Not many players have done that.
*Douglas Jardine - if we're talking Ashes history, Jardine had a profound impact. Not so much with the bat though...averaging just 31.76 vs Australia - better than Brearley though
*David Steele - Steele is a great story...he was the mercenary Tony Greig drafted in to the 1975 series to bring some STEELE to the English batting. Looked like Santa Claus according to Jeff Thomson, but he did his job in his only series averaging 60 in his 3 Tests at the top of the order against probably the fastest pair of bowlers in history.
*Shane Watson - thought about looking for a batsman who could bowl a bit and discovered Watson has now passed 1000 Ashes runs...1093 runs @ 45.54 against England, 1 100 and 8 50s in his 13 Tests against them. Checked Adam Gilchrist's record vs England? 1083 runs @ 45.12. Watson's numbers are similar to Hayden (1461 runs @ 45.65) and Cook's (1541 runs @ 44.02) Ashes stats as well. Hasn't taken many Ashes wickets, but his tidy bowling has still been helpful.
There's a few other batsmen who could bowl a bit: Doug Walters, Ted Dexter and Basil D'Oliveira (who's a great story). And there were quite a few other names floating about too: Samuels has hinted at a couple of guys. Keith Stackpole was one, a few old players too.
In the end, I threw all those away and went right back to the man who scored the first run in Test cricket, and of course the first century -
Charles Bannerman.
Bannerman only played one innings of note in the Ashes...but what an innings! Arguably the greatest Ashes innings? Certainly should be in discussions. For starters, it was ground breaking. Even on the unofficial tours before that first Test in 1877, no one had ever scored a century against an English XI. Bannerman's innings showed that it was possible to score against the masters of cricket - big names of the time like Alfred Shaw and James Lillywhite. It can also be called the most dominating innings in Ashes history, given that Bannerman scored 67.35% of the team's runs (165 out of 245). Only Michael Slater's 123 out of 184 has come close (66.85%).
As a bonus, Wisden said that Bannerman was both an attractive batsman (using the front foot more than his contemporaries), and a brilliant fieldsman in any position. Plus he has awesome mutton chops, will definitely be a crowd favourite
So my XI ends up looking like this:
1
Charles Bannerman 
(239 runs @ 59.75)
2
Archie Jackson (350 runs @ 58.33)
3
Sir Donald Bradman (5028 runs @ 89.78)
4
Ken Barrington (2111 runs @ 63.96)
5
Dean Jones (1320 runs @ 50.76)
6
Monty Noble (1905 runs @ 30.72 & 115 wkts @ 24.86)
7
Wilfred Rhodes (1706 runs @ 31.01 & 109 wkts @ 24.00)
8
Jack Blackham (800 runs @ 15.68 & 39 dismissals)
9
Jim Laker (79 wkts @ 18.27)
10
Sir Alec Bedser (104 wkts @ 27.49)
11
Bruce Reid (47 wkts @ 20.40)
Towards the end I have ended up picking guys I like or who have interesting stories eg. Jackson, Reid, Bannerman, as opposed to those who might have been better on paper. Ended up with 6 pre WW2 players! Pace attack is probably the weakest point (but I knew it would be after I picked 2 spinners). A fire breathing fast bowler somewhere in there to pair with Bedser would be great. Craig McDermott or Merv Hughes were there, even Gillespie or Gough, but I was always a big Bruce Reid fan.
Oh, and 12th man would have to be
Gary Pratt 
Hogg, Alderman and McGrath are a trio that complement each other's skills nicely, and the batsmen are all good players. Hammond can bowl useful overs as your 5th bowler. Peter May is a great pick. He might be my captain - he's one of England's most underappreciated players I feel. Stylish batsman and successful captain.
Not sure whether I did the correct thing by letting him go for Woodfull. 
Almost picked Trumper instead of Bruce Reid. He has a massive reputation, deserved to be taken earlier... And in Warwick Armstrong you've not only bagged an underrated all-rounder, but perhaps the most successful Ashes captain - never lost a Test in charge and won 8 of his 10 Tests in charge.
