After 2019 saw Mujeeb Ur Rahman play 9 group matches during Middlesex’s run to just a fourth Twenty20 quarter-final, in which he also appeared,
he is set to return for the group stage and potential quarter-final of our campaign in 2020.
Mujeeb more often than not records an economy which is excellent by any Twenty20 standards, and is all the more impressive when it is considered that a lot of his overs are bowled in the powerplay. In our campaign in 2019, he recorded an economy of 7.23, which is impressive considering that most of the players ahead of him
in the list of bowlers with better economies in this campaign bowled fewer overs and/or played in the north group, where scores tend to be lower.
We entered our 2019 campaign on the back of an extremely disappointing campaign in 2018, but the presence of the likes of Mujeeb, Paul Stirling, Dawid Malan, AB de Villiers and Eoin Morgan meant that we weren’t a million miles from being a world-class side. Hopefully de Villiers will return (as I think the club hope he will), otherwise we would really need a similar type of player to avoid being a lot weaker in 2020 due to the departures of Stirlo and Malan. Stirlo could play as an overseas player, but that would rule out de Villiers returning, unless they sign at different times. I would have thought that the fact de Villiers is not due to play at The Hundred will increase the chances of him returning to Middlesex.