Middlesex Cricket have today named a fifteen-man squad to travel to New Road to take on Worcestershire Rapids in the Club’s latest Royal London Cup clash tomorrow.
There is one change to the squad named to face Hampshire yesterday, with Tim Murtagh dropping out, to be replaced by youngster Josh De Caires, who is now available for selection following a period away from the group whilst in Covid self-isolation. The fourteen others named for the Hampshire clash retain their places in the squad.
Yesterday’s encounter against Hampshire at Radlett fell foul of the weather, as despite an enormous amount of effort and hard work from the Radlett Cricket Club ground staff, they were fighting an uphill battle all day with the weather, which was relentless and ultimately prevailed.
In between breaks in the persistent rain, the ground staff fervently mopped up, only for more rain to land each and every time there looked to be some chance of getting a game on. The umpires, having given it every chance, were forced to abandon the game a little after 3pm, as yet another heavy shower killed off any prospects of a game beginning.
Our thanks go to the hardy souls who came along to support us and braved the weather at Radlett yesterday, we’re just sorry your patience and commitment wasn’t rewarded with a game.
The rained off result gave Middlesex their first point of the campaign, and they’ll be hoping to build on that at New Road tomorrow, with their sights set on a first win of the campaign.
It’ll be a tough challenge though, against a strong Rapids side who head into the game on a real high, as the only side in the competition with a 100% win record, having won all three of their fifty-over encounters to date, and currently sitting in pole position in Group A of the competition on six points.
In their opening clash last Sunday they beat Kent by three wickets in a final over victory, chasing down 323 to record the win. They followed this up with a DLS victory over Gloucestershire two days later, and then completed their hat-trick of wins two days ago, destroying formerly unbeaten Essex by 182 runs.
Jack Haynes is the man in form for the hosts, with 289 runs at an average of 96.33, and he is currently the competitions second highest run scorer.
Middlesex will be looking for Captain Peter Handscomb to build on an impressive innings against Durham earlier this week, when the Australian hit 75, and Robbie White, who continues to improve, with back-to- back scores of 47 and 55. The return of Stephen Eskinazi, now recovered from a groin injury, comes as a real boost too, and he’ll be looking to take his blistering form from the Blast into the longer of the two white-ball formats.
Middlesex name the following fifteen-man squad for tomorrow’s clash:
Peter Handscomb (captain)
Martin Andersson
Ethan Bamber
Varun Chopra
Jack Davies
Josh De Caires
Stephen Eskinazi
Toby Greatwood
James Harris
Max Harris
Max Holden
Luke Hollman
Sam Robson
Robbie White
Thilan Walallawita
Worcestershire Rapids
Middlesex
