Middlesex's Metro Bank One Day Cup competition gets underway tomorrow with an away trip to Southampton, where we will take on Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl, in a match starting at 11am.
First Team Coach Richard Johnson has named a fifteen-man squad for the opening encounter of the fifty over campaign, in which we'll be looking to continue the promising white ball form we showed towards the end of our Vitality Blast competition, which saw us win three of our last four encounters.
With white-ball Captain Stephen Eskinazi away with his Hundred franchise, Welsh Fire, Mark Stoneman will stand in as skipper for the clash tomorrow, and he will lead a side that contains a good blend of youth and experience, with only two other Middlesex regulars absent at the Hundred.
Tom Helm, with Birmingham Phoenix, and Max Holden, with Manchester Originals, are the only other two unavailable players, with Johnson able to call upon the rest of the squad for this opening encounter.
Middlesex have the experienced of stand-in skipper Stoneman and fellow opener Sam Robson to rely on at the top of the order, and have the added bonus this year of also being able to call upon the experience of wicket-keeper/batsman John Simpson, and all-rounder Ryan Higgins, with neither player being picked up to feature in the Hundred in August. Their collective experience will prove invaluable alongside the youthful side that we fielded in this year's other white-ball competition, the Blast.
A seam attack of Martin Andersson, Ethan Bamber, Blake Cullen, Ryan Higgins and Ishaan Kaushal has plenty of variety in it, with frontline spin options also offering plenty of options, with Josh De Caires, Nathan Fernandes, Luke Hollman, and Thilan Walallawita all named in the squad.
Our hosts Hampshire are losing a number of their influential white-ball cricketers to this year's Hundred, with no fewer than seven of their squad retained by their franchises for this year's competition and one additional player also picked up as a Hundred squad replacement earlier this month.
The eight players the hosts will be without are James Vince, James Fuller and Joe Weatherley, who have all been retained by Southern Brave, Liam Dawson, Mason Crane and Chris Wood who will all be with London Spirit, Benny Howell who has been retained by Birmingham Phoenix, whilst Nathan Ellis joins head to London to join up with the Spirit as a squad replacement for Riley Meredith.
In 2022 Middlesex narrowly missed out on qualifying for the play-offs, by virtue of a lower net run rate than Nottinghamshire, as we finished in joint third place in Group A, with five wins from our eight matches. Tomorrow's opponents, despite also losing several players to the Hundred last year, smashed their way to the semi-final stage of the competition, winning Group B in style, finishing on 14 points and winning seven of their eight group matches. Defeat to eventual winners Kent in the semi-final saw them miss out on a place in the final, although they certainly did enough to prove their credentials as a fifty-over side, even without so many of their key white-ball players.
Tomorrow's clash promises to be a good encounter, and Middlesex will be looking to bring the attacking style of play they adopted in the twenty over format into the longer of the two white ball competitions as we look to get off to a winning start down at the Ageas Bowl.
Middlesex's fifteen-man squad for tomorrow's clash is as follows:
Hampshire
Middlesex
