Derbyshire go into tomorrow's four-day game against Lancashire at Old Trafford with the same fourteen that were selected for the game against Worcestershire last week.
The squad will be led by Alex Hughes, as Mickey is away in Australia for his daughter's wedding. I hope everything goes well for them and wish the family the very best for the festivities and the future.
Alex will be assisted by Ben Smith and Chris Wright and our Head of Cricket will be back before next week's second team game against Yorkshire at Scarborough.
I can't see any change to the eleven, in all honesty. Luis Reece may be limited on what he can bowl, but there are plenty of options in the side and his batting, as we saw last week, would be more than enough if he didn't turn his arm over at all. A fit Luis Reece adds a certain something to the attack, of course, not least a different angle for batters to contend with.
So the likely Derbyshire side:
Came, Jewell, Montgomery, Guest, Andersson, Reece, Dal, Chappell, Aitchison, Abbas, Bashir
The home side have named fifteen in their squad, which will again be led by Jimmy Anderson. There's no Keaton Jennings, but Marcus Harris has arrived from Australia and will likely take his place at the top of the order.
Their squad:
James Anderson (c), Tom Bailey, George Balderson, George Bell, Josh Bohannon, Paul Coughlin, Rocky Flintoff, Marcus Harris, Tom Hartley, Matty Hurst, Michael Jones, Harry Singh, Ajeet Singh Dale, Mitch Stanley, Luke Wells
Lancashire had an encouraging start against Northamptonshire, but failed to bowl them out on the last day in conditions that many felt they should have done. Although their squad for tomorrow's game is strong, I think there's a big difference between Lancashire in red and white ball cricket.
Many will see this game as a shootout between Jimmy Anderson and Mohammad Abbas. I don't think it's quite so clear-cut, but if you were to name a fantasy new ball attack from division two to take on Mars (or even division one), the likelihood is that they would feature in most people's selection.
It promises to be an exciting game, but Saturday and Sunday look likely to lose a fair portion of the available time to rain.
Accordingly, I am going to predict a draw, but this is a game where Derbyshire can again show where they are at. The first two fixtures this summer have been against a side that was in division one last year - who they dominated - and now they're up against another who will surely be in the mix at season end.
I can't wait to see how we fare and as usual, wish the boys the very best of luck.
What do you think?
I think this has draw written all over it due to limited overs potentially being bowled. The weather looks pretty awful Saturday onwards so a positive result looks highly doubtful. I really like the look of our starting eleven though, and Wayne has to be included when fit probably in place of Dal?. Looking forward to this one and a good test to see where we're at
ReplyDeleteAs you say Steve, no reason to change a team which performed well against Worcs. It certainly confirmed the squad is stronger than 2025, but also that the Derby pitch isn’t conducive to taking 20 wickets in a game. It looks like we won’t get a completed match against Lancs because of the weather but let’s hope for a good performance against strong opposition to confirm the sound start to the season.
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Adrian, Nice
Jimmy Anderson is bowling as well now as he ever has, he's just ageless and I fear he could destroy our batting line up. One of the best England have ever produced
ReplyDeleteWhen he's on it, Dal should be pretty much the first name on the team sheet - but who to leave out for Madsen is a tough call. Rain-affected draw. Dave.
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