I suppose the big news of the day, as Graeme Welch announced his first 'proper; match squad of the summer, was that Harvey Hosein had got the gloves ahead of Tom Poynton.
I couldn't have called that one, to be honest and was always likely to feel sorry for the one who lost out. At 25, Tom Poynton will have had his supporters, on grounds of both talent and sentiment, but it would have been tough to drop Harvey Hosein. At 18, he would appear to have the world at his feet, with excellent hands and a better than average talent with the bat. I suspect that he will move up the order as he matures and will eventually settle in the top six. Full credit to him for getting the nod - he will know he needs to work hard and perform to stay in poll position.
As I have written before, it reminds me of when Leicester City, in the 1970s, found themselves with the world's best goalkeeper in Gordon Banks, at the same time that they had a huge young talent in Peter Shilton. It was a tough decision, but one that had to be made.
The rest of the squad is largely that which played against Cambridge MCCU, with Chesney Hughes and Tony Palladino added. I would be surprised if Chesney played, and suspect the final place will be between the two young seamers, Tom Taylor and Ben Cotton. That would leave a final eleven as follows:
Godleman
Slater
Guptill
Madsen
Durston
Thakor
Hughes (A)
Hosein
Palladino
Taylor/Cotton
Footitt
Wayne White misses out for now, but there will be plenty of opportunities ahead for him and the rest of the squad, with plenty of cricket between now and the end of September.
Lancashire arrive with Peter Siddle as overseas player, ahead of the arrival of James Faulkner, and with Ashwell Prince and Alviro Petersen in their side, they have plenty of overseas input. Former Leicestershire seam bowler Nathan Buck will add firepower to their attack, which lacks injured veteran Glenn Chapple. Their squad is as follows:
Tom Smith (C), Tom Bailey, Nathan Buck, Jordan Clark, Steven Croft, Alex
Davies (W), Paul Horton, Kyle Jarvis, Simon Kerrigan, Alviro Petersen,
Ashwell Prince, Luis Reece, Peter Siddle.
It is a good side, but tribute to the way that we have progressed is that I don't look at it and fear the worst. There will be games we lose this season, because that happens in sport, but I expect Derbyshire to give Lancashire a good run for their money.
It is a tough game to call, but if we have luck with the toss and weather, hold our catches and show the level of intensity that was the hallmark of our cricket at the end of last year, we can win it. Playing one of the promotion favourites early offers a useful benchmark of where we are. There are worse teams in the division and none that are markedly better than the red rose county.
If we can win this one, the portents are good.
So what do you think?
Have a soft spot for Lanky, so the ideal scenario would be for both of us to gain promotion. Think we'll lose this first game though, as their squad looks really strong, in fact I'd go as far to say that they could hold their own in Division one with that team.
ReplyDeleteAgree with your thoughts that Chesney and Ben Cotton are likely to miss out. I also applaud Graeme Welch for his selection. It would be easy to leave out Hosein because he is the youngster and having signed Wayne White it must have been difficult to omit him from even the squad.
ReplyDeleteAt last Derbyshire have genuine competition for places and I really hope this focuses the mind of the up and coming academy players knocking at the door. In the past we have had players who definitely have the skills but perhaps lack the mind set and application to battle to the very top. The challenge should be to get into the Derbyshire team then get into the England team. I always felt that Ross Whiteley could go as far as he wanted to in the game, but once he was comfortably settled in the first team, progress stopped. I still look for his scores when he plays.
Fingers crossed for a victory. I fancy we might win this one.
Craig
It can,t have been easy for Welch to choose his starting eleven but those who failed to make the team on this occasion will all get chances along the way. Poynton is perhaps the main talking point but he hasn,t really made much of a case with the bat. This is his weak area and he will need to score runs if he is to stake a future claim.
ReplyDeleteThis is not an easy fixture and we will have to be at something close to our best if we are to make a winning start. I am cautiously optimistic,though I seem to recall saying something similar at the start of 2014 season. It was interesting to note that five of six teams who played last week chose to bat first,a reflection on how dry the weather has been of late. Can,t wait to get there tomorrow.
I'll be clear - I have no soft spot for Lancashire unlike Mark. One of my first Derbyshire supporting memories was 1993, Akram/Adams etc - enough said.
ReplyDeleteTaylor over Cotton for me, though there's little between them and I'm happy to see youth given the nod ahead of White for now.
I suspect it'll be a close game and if the playing surface is similar to those local to me (ie more July than April due to little rainfall) then it could be a high scoring draw.
Go well Derbyshire - we believe in you.