Squad announced for first pre-season friendly

Mickey Arthur has announced his first Derbyshire squad of 2026, for the 3-day friendly against Leicestershire at the Uptonsteel County Ground today.

With our overseas players set to arrive before the opening county championship game, the 13-man squad is a mixture of youth and experience. Matt Montgomery and Shoaib Bashir could both feature, but there is no place in the side for Wayne Madsen in this one.

The Derbyshire squad: 

Came

Donald

Montgomery 

Guest

Andersson 

Reece

Dal

Chappell

Moore

Aitchison

Bashir

Haydon

Morley

I won't be reading too much into that selection, nor will I be especially worried if things don't go according to plan. This is merely a workout, a chance to get some overs and some time in the middle under their belts.

I just hope that the weather is better than we are currently experiencing in the Lake District. With the amount of rain in the last 24 hours it's unlikely there would be any play over the 3 days, let alone today..

I won't report every evening, since it is a friendly and I am on holiday, but I will do an end of match round up in due course. 

A decent phone signal would be handy, too!