Warwickshire – 9
Chris Woakes (Birmingham Phoenix), Moeen Ali (Birmingham Phoenix), Chris Benjamin (Birmingham Phoenix), Dan Mousley (Birmingham Phoenix), Henry Brookes (Birmingham Phoenix), Jacob Bethell (Birmingham Phoenix), Danny Briggs (Oval Invincibles), Alex Davies (Southern Brave), Sam Hain (Trent Rockets)
Somerset – 9
Will Smeed (Birmingham Phoenix), Tom Lammonby (Manchester Originals), Tom Banton (Northern Superchargers), Craig Overton (Southern Brave), Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Trent Rockets), Lewis Gregory (Trent Rockets), Tom Abell (Welsh Fire), Roelof van der Merwe (Welsh Fire), Ben Green (Welsh Fire)
Durham – 8
Mark Wood (London Spirit), Ben Stokes (Northern Superchargers), Brydon Carse (Northern Superchargers), Matthew Potts (Northern Superchargers), Bas De Leede (Northern Superchargers), Ollie Robinson (Northern Superchargers), Nathan Sowter (Oval Invincibles), Ben Raine (Manchester Originals)
Derbyshire – 4
Wayne Madsen (Manchester Originals), Zak Chappell (Oval Invincibles), Leus du Plooy (Southern Brave), George Scrimshaw (Welsh Fire)
Sussex – 3
Ravi Bopara (London Spirit), Tymal Mills (Southern Brave), George Garton (Southern Brave)
Worcestershire – 3
Josh Tongue (Manchester Originals), Mitchell Stanley (Manchester Originals), Adam Hose (Northern Superchargers)
Glamorgan – 2
Dan Douthwaite (Welsh Fire), Chris Cooke (Welsh Fire)
Gloucestershire – 2
Miles Hammond (Birmingham Phoenix), David Payne (Welsh Fire)
Northamptonshire – 2
Saif Zaib (Northern Superchargers), David Willey (Welsh Fire)
So Warwickshire, Somerset and Durham are effectively playing their second team. The surprise for me is that Glamorgan are only missing two players to Welsh Fire. I would have thought Kiran Carlson and Billy Root certain to be picked up, fine players both.
Anyway, let the show commence! The other competition will go its own sweet way with no interest from yours truly. I did note that Zaman Khan is a late pick for Manchester Originals, but he isn't available to us now anyway.
In closing what is a lengthy piece, I wanted to acknowledge the quick and indeed shrewd move for Mohammad Amir by Mickey Arthur. Especially when one considers that next year's T20 World Cup will be run at the same time as the Vitality Blast.
By definition, the best players in the world will not be available, unless they have already retired from international cricket, like Amir. I would assume that Mark Watt will therefore be unavailable to Derbyshire next summer for that competition, held in the United States and West Indies.
That might focus recruitment for that competition on a potential fringe, or out of consideration spinner from overseas, as well as being a consideration for player releases.
Not easy, this cricket management malarkey!
Have a good weekend. Let's hope for a stream for the Lincolnshire game tomorrow, even a camera at one end...
Postscript: Guest has now been announced as captain, with Dal as vice-captain.
No complaints there, they seemed the most likely (only?) candidates and Brooke must feel he can handle the additional responsibilities.
Two good people in charge, so we are all set.
I agree we'll be struggling for pace bowlers particularly as even loan options may be limited due to the bigger counties losing so many players to the Hundred so I think we'll need to look further afield.
ReplyDeleteWe've probably got Thomson, Watt, McKiernan and then even Wood as spin options so maybe we'll only need 30 or so overs from some combination of Dal, Reece, Conners, Potts and maybe Harrison or Lakmal so its possible we'll scrape by with what we have but if Lakmal has gone then one or two injuries and we're in trouble.
Leicestershire have a plethora of pace bowlers in Wright, Scriven, Salisbury, Mulder, Barnes, Finan, Hull, Davis and Walker.
The latter, Roman Walker is another like Lloyd from North Wales and hasn't seemed to quite crack it at Leicester despite for my money being a promising bowler and very useful lower order bat. He's had a couple injuries and Nixon always seemed to make bizarre selections in my opinion but if he's out of contract soon and could be loaned for the 50 over comp I think it could be a canny signing. Alternatively either of the Scottish opening bowlers, Sole or McMullen would be handy to have for the remainder of the season.
I think Leics have a few injuries and might need all of them! Sole is also injured for Scotland and missed the WC qualifiers. McMullen is more of an Alex Hughes bowler. Think him a very good bat and useful bowler, but likely not for this compy, right now
DeleteMy guess is that Mickey's flicking through his contacts book for a seam bowler for the ODC. We can't rely on Lakmal being fit, as he's been prone to injury since he joined.
ReplyDeleteThe batting looks okay, if Lamb is available.
We might have to bring in Mitch Wagstaff or Archie Harrison during the competition. While both are inexperienced, they have potential, and, you never know, they might shine.
My heart says that we could do well in the competition, but my head says, given the season, so far, that we probably won't.
I'm not aware of many injuries in that Leicestershire bowling unit though it's not a strong list of names past Wright and Mulder anyway. Admittedly I don't see us loaning Walker either way but it's just one I'd look at if I was Micky.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunate news on Sole but I disagree on McMullen. He's clearly a very good bat but fantastic bowling returns when opening the bowling in the ODI world cup qualifier including against full members like West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe suggest to me he'd be well up to the job for us in what is now a development level competition anyway.
Yeah he bowled less well in the matches this week. But would look at McMullen for a contract as an all rounder. I hope to see Potts use the opportunity to advance his claims, but any more injuries and loans would be a requisite market!
DeleteAlex Hughes out of retirement 👀👀👀
ReplyDeleteI would be surprised, unless we got really short! Liked him as a player and he has been missed, but don't see that happening. Sadly...
DeleteOne small thing about this years One Day Cup that irritates me, is that Derbyshire have been placed in Group B while all of Notts; Yorkshire; Lancashire and Leicester are in Group A. This means that we will have no matches against neighbouring counties. As usual, a complete lack of caring from the powers that be.
ReplyDeleteI am just pleased to see us play someone different. Gets a bit boring playing the same teams every year in T20. Admittedly there's more travelling but it is swings and roundabouts
DeleteI sense that for Tom Wood this might be a his opportunity to put a case for a new contract. He's shown flashes of what he can do, but, so far, he hasn't looked liked someone we can rely on to get runs. I would have said the same about Came before the Glamorgan game. I hope Tom can do it.
ReplyDelete