Despite Middlesex signing Miguel Cummins, the interesting omissions in our squad do not come in the fast bowling department, as all of the fast bowlers whose place in our side was made vulnerable due to Cummins signing are included (indeed, Ethan Bamber and Tom Barber are our only fast bowlers with 1st XI experience not included). Instead, the interesting omissions come in other departments in the form of Eoin Morgan (not that I really expected him to be involved, especially as he has previously said that he was looking forward to the season ending due to his back problem), Ollie Rayner (despite Nathan Sowter being yet to impress) and Paul Stirling (despite scoring 138 v Glamorgan at Radlett to give him an average of 50.00 to sit ahead of all of the rest of our squad bar Dawid Malan, although admittedly Stirlo’s three other innings have yielded just 12 runs).
It will be interesting to see which three players will miss out. I imagine that our line-up will cause some debate when it is announced.
Durham have named a 13-man squad for this match consisting of Chris Rushworth, Gareth Harte, Brydon Carse, Alex Lees, Angus Robson, Nathan Rimmington, Cameron Steel, Liam Trevaskis, Scott Steel, Matt Salisbury, Peter Handscomb, Ned Eckersley (c, wk) and Ben Raine.
Eckersley seems to often do well when he plays against us, while Cameron Steel (who, as I far I am aware, is not related to Scott Steel) is set to play against the side who opted against selecting him for the 1st XI. Angus Robson was also previously on our books, and will play against brother Sam if our batting line-up contains no surprises and if Durham don’t make mass changes to the batting line-up which posted 544-9 dec in
their previous County Championship match v Leicestershire at Chester-le-street. One member of that batting-line up that won’t play however is second top-scorer Jack Burnham, who made 86, but is ruled out of tomorrow's match due to a niggle.
Stuart Law has spoken to our YouTube page ahead of this match.
I saw
a Tweet saying that Morgan has unveiled a repainted postbox next to St. John’s Wood station to honour England winning the World Cup, so I was going to write that people attending this match (and future matches for that matter) will be likely to notice it if they come out of the station. However,
as the post box is on Acacia Road, I am not sure how many people who use the station will notice it. Then again, the fact that everyone attending this match will probably have to enter via the Grace Gate means that they may notice
the postbox near this gate, as I believe that has also now been repainted.
[edited to correct grammar]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2019 22:04 by Jonathan Winsky.