Middlesex First-Team Coach Richard Johnson has named a thirteen-man squad to face table topping Surrey tomorrow evening in front of what will be a sell out crowd at the Kia Oval.
Middlesex head into the clash on the back of five straight losses in the format, desperate to turn their form around to salvage something from this season's T20 campaign.
Wins in the opening three matches of their campaign seem a long time ago now, as defeats to Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, Surrey and Essex have taken Middlesex from top of the South Group to seventh in the table, and with six games remaining, Middlesex realistically need to win four of those games to give themselves any chance of progressing further in the competition.
Surrey have proved to be the stand-out side in the competition to date, and remain the only unbeaten team in the Blast across both the North and South Groups, so Middlesex will need to be right back on it tomorrow if they are to get the first of those crucial wins under their belts.
Recent history in the London derby fixtures has gone in Surrey's favour, with tomorrow's hosts doing the double over Middlesex in both of the last two seasons, so there's plenty of incentive for Middlesex to turn that around tomorrow and start to redress the balance and restore some pride.
Surrey will be weakened by the departure of Jason Roy, Sam Curran and Reece Topley, who are all absent with England on ODI duties in the Netherlands, which will give Middlesex a lift ahead of such a crucial game. There would be nothing like winning in front of a full Oval to inspire the Middlesex lads.
Johnson names an unchanged squad to face Surrey tomorrow night to the one that faced Essex a week ago.
Middlesex's thirteen man squad is as follows:
Stephen Eskinazi (captain)
Martin Andersson
Jason Behrendorff
Joe Cracknell
Jack Davies
Josh De Caires
Toby Greatwood
Chris Green
Tom Helm
Max Holden
Luke Hollman
John Simpson (wicket-keeper)
Thilan Walallawita
Surrey
Middlesex
