Middlesex have named a squad of fourteen for the opening clash of this year's Metro Bank One-Day Cup, when we head to Visit Worcestershire New Road to take on the Worcestershire Rapids tomorrow.
The Middlesex squad is missing five first team regulars, with Stephen Eskinazi, Max Holden, Leus du Plooy, Ryan Higgins, and Tom Helm all off with their respective franchises for the next four weeks at the Hundred.
Eskinazi (Welsh Fire), Holden (Manchester Originals), du Plooy (Southern Brave), Higgins (London Spirit) and Helm (Birmingham Phoenix) will certainly miss the opening two clashes of the One-Day Cup, although can return to Middlesex at any time if their franchises do not select them in two consecutive Hundred matches.
Their absence opens the door for others in the squad to size the opportunity, and the experienced heads of Sam Robson and Mark Stoneman come in at the top of the order. The latter will captain the Middlesex side again throughout this year's One-Day Cup campaign.
The other batting berths are filled by Joe Cracknell, Jack Davies, Nathan Fernandes, Josh De Caires and Robbie White, with plenty of middle-order firepower coming from all-rounders Martin Andersson and Luke Hollman.
There's plenty of variety with the ball too, with five seamers are named in the group, with Ethan Bamber, Henry Brookes, Noah Cornwell, Blake Cullen and Ishaan Kaushal vying for the seamer's spots in the starting eleven, with numerous spin options also available from Hollman, De Caires, Fernandes and Robson.
Middlesex warmed up nicely for the One-Day Cup campaign with a good run out at Thame Cricket Club last Sunday against Oxfordshire in the National Counties Cricket Association Showcase game, as Mark Stoneman led the side to a comprehensive 118 run victory.
There were runs for Robson (69 off 72 balls), Stoneman (36 off 37), Hollman (73 off 60) and De Caires (42 off 32), with Fernandes and Andersson chipping in with 29 apiece.
With the ball, Hollman capped a fine game, by being the pick of the bowlers, returning figures of 4 for 68 from 9.2 overs. Two wickets apiece for De Caires and Kaushal saw them warm-up well, and all will be hopeful of selection tomorrow on the basis of those efforts.
Our hosts tomorrow miss out on just one first team regular for the One-Day Cup this year, with Adam Hose joining up with the Northern Superchargers at the Hundred, and the Rapids will be led by Jake Libby again who takes on the fifty over captain's responsibilities after leading them to a quarter-final knockout spot in 2023 and finishing the campaign last year as their leading run-scorer with 397 runs at an average of 66.16.
The last time the two sides met in this format of the game was in 2021 at New Road, when early rain forced the game to be reduced to 41 overs per side. A hundred from Stephen Eskinazi and half century from Sam Robson saw Middlesex post 302 for 5 batting first, before Worcestershire were reduced to 289 for 7 in their reply, to see Middlesex run out winners by 13 runs.
Middlesex have named the following fourteen-man squad for tomorrow's match, which gets underway at 11am.
You'll be able to watch a live stream of the game, broadcast by our hosts Worcestershire, which you'll be able to watch on the Middlesex website.
Worcestershire Rapids
Middlesex
