Middlesex Head Coach Stuart Law names an unchanged squad for tonight's trip to Canterbury, where his side will go up against Kent Spitfires in round two of the Vitality Blast.
A disappointing start to the campaign saw Middlesex go down by 54 runs to Surrey last night at Lord's, yet despite the loss, skipper Eoin Morgan felt there were plenty of positives to take from the game and build on ahead of this evening's and future encounters.
With three players making their Blast debuts for Middlesex last night, against a strong and vastly experienced Surrey side, it was always going to be a difficult opener against their London rivals in St John's Wood, and so it proved.
Despite the disparity in experience, and chasing a record total at Lord's last night, Middlesex's top order of Paul Stirling, Stephen Eskinazi and Eoin Morgan showed they have the firepower and definitely the quality up top to build a solid foundation to the innings, however they'll need more support from the middle order to maximise on the starts they'll get.
With Max Holden, Nick Gubbins, John Simpson, Chris Green, Luke Hollman, and Joe Cracknell all following them in, there's certainly power in the middle ranks, and if it fires Middlesex are more than capable of posting or chasing big totals in this format of the game.
In Eoin Morgan, the inexperience and youth of Middlesex's side couldn't be in better hands, and he'll need to draw on all his captaincy nouse as one of the games' most natural and gifted leaders to marshal his young side through the early part of the campaign before he departs on England duty. They'll learn from every game and can take inspiration from Morgan.
Middlesex's squad are hampered by injuries to the pace bowling unit, and they go into tonight's clash again with only three seamers named in the squad, in Steven Finn, Blake Cullen and Ethan Bamber, with most of the attack coming in the form of spin, from Nathan Sowter, who picked up three wickets last night, Luke Hollman, Chris Green and Paul Stirling, with further support coming from both Nick Gubbins and Max Holden if needed.
Missing the call for tonight are Tom Helm, who is still isolating, having tested positive for Covid-19, whilst James Harris (side-strain), Toby Roland-Jones (knee), Tim Murtagh, (elbow), and Max Harris (ankle), all remain unavailable to Law, side-lined through injury.
An unchanged thirteen-man squad for Middlesex is as follows:
Eoin Morgan (captain)
Ethan Bamber
Joe Cracknell
Blake Cullen
Stephen Eskinazi
Steven Finn
Chris Green
Nick Gubbins
Max Holden
Luke Hollman
John Simpson (wicket-keeper)
Nathan Sowter
Paul Stirling
Kent Spitfires
Middlesex
