Middlesex Men's pre-season preparations ramp up a gear on Monday as the squad travels to Southampton, and get into their first on-field action, where they'll take on Hampshire in a two-day red-ball encounter.
Middlesex's First Team Coach, Richard Johnson, has named a twelve-man squad to head down to the opening clash of pre-season, with Toby-Roland Jones skippering the side across the two days.
Whilst a number of the Men's squad have been playing overseas across the winter, the remainder have been hard at work in winter training in the Julian Hill Cricket Centre at Merchant Taylors' School since November last year, and transitioned to the outdoor marquee just a few weeks ago to get their first practice of the year on grass.
With the bulk of the squad now back and working together as a group in pre-season training, they were fortunate enough to get to net outdoors this week and take advantage of the surprisingly clement weather, as they had their first run-out on the brand-new bank of nets installed at Merchant Taylors' School which have been purpose built to replicate the slope of the Lord's square. This will offer the players the invaluable opportunity to practice with both bat and ball in advance of playing at Lord's, to better face the challenges that playing on the famous Lord's slope brings to both batters and bowlers alike.
For the clash down in Hampshire, a five strong seam attack is named, led by Roland-Jones, along with with Henry Brookes, Ryan Higgins, Blake Cullen and Noah Cornwell.
Zafar Gohar looks set to get his first run-out in a Middlesex shirt, named as the frontline spinner in the squad, with spin support also on offer from Nathan Fernandes, Sam Robson and Max Holden if required.
The batting unit sees Robson named as the likely opener, most probably with Fernandes, with Holden, Stephen Eskinazi, Higgins, debutant Ben Geddes, and wicket-keeper Jack Davies, completing the top and middle order.
Whether the weather remains on-side for the two days remains to be seen, with both sides no doubt keen to get out there and give the batters the opportunity to feel bat on ball, and the bowlers the chance to get some valuable overs into their legs.
We'll be providing lunch, tea and close of play updates across the game on our social media channels, to enable you to keep up to date with the game's progress as it develops.
Here's to a good couple of days ahead in Southampton.
Middlesex have named the following twelve-man squad for the fixture:
Hampshire
Middlesex
