Middlesex return home to Lord’s on Sunday after their annual outground excursion to Uxbridge Sports Club, where they came through a tough game with the then league’s bottom side, Worcestershire, to secure a hard fought draw, thanks largely to half centuries in both innings from Australian overseas player Joe Burns and a century and an unbeaten knock of 91 from skipper James Franklin.
As a result of the drawn affair at Uxbridge, Middlesex replaced Warwickshire in third spot in the Division One table, whilst Worcestershire leapt ahead of both Nottinghamshire and Sunday’s visitors to Lord’s, Hampshire, who themselves were resoundingly beaten by nine wickets in their last outing by a resurgent Somerset side at the Ageas Bowl.
Middlesex will be boosted by the return of enigmatic batsman Eoin Morgan, fresh back from his heroics leading the England One-Day and T20 sides to victory over the touring Black Caps. Whilst Morgan’s return adds plenty of punch to the Seaxes batting ranks, left-hander Dawid Malan remains on the side-lines through injury, however big hitting Ulsterman, Paul Stirling, is in contention for another run out in the four day side, having played at Uxbridge this week.
Middlesex will again be without the firepower of paceman Steven Finn, absent on England’s pre-Ashes training camp in Spain, although each of Toby Roland-Jones, Tim Murtagh and the County Championship Division One’s third highest wicket-taker James Harris, with 41 wickets already this season, are all available and in contention to start.
James Franklin will skipper the side, in great form with the bat after his heroics at Uxbridge, hoping that a return to the Home of Cricket will see his Middlesex side return to winning ways, having not bagged all the points for a win since they beat Sussex back in mid-May down in Hove.
Visitors Hampshire of course have the returning former Middlesex man Gareth Berg within their ranks, who with 25 Championship wickets himself for his new side, will be keen to add to that tally.
Whilst Hampshire do not have a single batsman averaging over forty this term with the bat, eight of them are averaging in the thirties, with Michael Carberry their leading run-scorer with 552 runs to his name at an average of 36.80.
A victory at Lord’s will push Middlesex closer to Yorkshire and Durham at the top end of the table, whilst Hampshire themselves will be desperate to turn around their own form, which has seen them win just once all season in the Championship which sees them sat joint bottom of the table, alongside Nottinghamshire.
Middlesex name 14-man squad for LV=CC encounter v Hampshire: James Franklin (c), Joe Burns, Nick Compton, Neil Dexter, Nick Gubbins, James Harris, Eoin Morgan, Tim Murtagh, Harry Podmore, Ollie Rayner, Sam Robson, Toby Roland-Jones, John Simpson, Paul Stirling.
Day one of the match on Sunday is Ladies' Day, so all Ladies get free entry into the ground. Find out more about what's going on at Ladies' Day by visiting http://www.middlesexccc.com/news/2015/june/ladies-day-at-lord-s-on-28-june/
