Real red ball cricket resumes.

Will Stone be condiered fit enough to play a four day game?

Will Yates and Davies, who have been mediocre at best, so far this season in championship cricket be replaced? Bethell and Mousley would be the obvious replacements.

Any other changes to the team?

I would like to think Stone could play and bowl him in short bursts. Not sure what the Norwell situation is but we need some oomph up front with the new ball but if Stone goes on like this and does not take much of a role in CC games then we will start to wonder what the future holds as he has been permanently injured since we signed him many years ago. What we don't want is medium paced opening bowling on what we presume will be a good batting strip and Lancashire winning the toss and batting for 5 sessions.

Buzzing that red ball cricket is back

I'd like to see

Sibley
Yates
Rhodes
Hain
Lamb
Mousley
Burgess
H Brookes
Briggs
Norwell
OHD

I assume Norwell is fit? Might be a little early for Stone?

Norwell in the squad - Stone not.
https://edgbaston.com/news/preview-warwickshire-v-lancashire-county-championship/
Lancashire have Matt Parkinson, released from England and have also signed Will Williams, a seamer from New Zealand.

How many chances will Davies and Yates get in this batting line up? It’s just not working, something has to be changed surely!?

live batting averages https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/averages/batting_bowling_by_team.html?id=14444;team=1479;type=tournament

RM Yates 7* 10 0 133 55 13.30 Excluding the highest score of 55, the average is 8.67.

That is not an acceptable level of performance for a specialist batsman.

Yates must be very greatful he signed a multi year contract last season, as the performances this year would not get a new deal.

Yates clearly has talent, I remember Hain similarly struggling in the seasons immediately after his first year where he had piled the runs on, but this is surely a situation where being taken out of the firing line would do some good. It’s just not working for him.

I agree that a rest for Yates might be a good thing. His talent, however, is without question. Even if his contract was due to expire at the end of the season, the Club would be crazy not to offer him a new deal. I am old enough to remember that Dennis Amiss had a bad spell and was dropped at one point early in his career so there is nothing that unusual in his form lapse.

Yates and Davies should have been dropped with Bethell and Mousley as the replacements.

Neither Davies or Yates are performing at the level of a specialist batsman.
We did win the championship last seasn, effectively playing with 10 men, in many games. Perhaps trying to win it with just 9 players is a challenge to far.

Pity about the last 15 overs as I thought we might get 350+. Hain was brilliant again but Yates looks so different to last year and looked like a club player being given his first taste of CC cricket. A few bad shots with the bat leave me feeling we could be about 80-100 runs short.

Hain deserves a place in the England test side. A class act who continues to get better....

I have no doubt that if he played for one of the ECB's favoured counties he'd have had many England test and ODI caps by now.

His record, in all forms of the game, is better than many in the England squad

A few of us on here did wonder a few tears ago that as his first-class game was so good, would playing one-day cricket change him. He then became a superb one-day player but then he suffered in the CC. Now over the last few years, he has been solid in all formats. Does England await, great for him to get picked but then again, I would really miss seeing him play for us.

There was a moment when he was in the middle earlier and I thought surely he must have thought he would have played for England by now.

And I think he must be very close now.

I really enjoyed his innings today, had a few appeals against him but stood strong throughout, gave it back to the bowlers and played some lovely shots.

Yes Sam Hain is now at the stage Trott was in 2009 knocking on the door 'the next cab off the rank'. He really ought to have got to this stage much sooner, should have been knocking on the door in 2018/2019 but for 2/3 years of iffy form in first class cricket but age is still on Hain's side

Crawley can't have too many more chances. They'll select a squad for the third test and the one off India test match. Perhaps they'll give a couple of new guys a test v India - Compton and/or Hain. Or maybe they'll experiment a bit more with the South Africa series - Moeen and/or Rashid coming in perhaps before the winter tours.

paulbear wrote:

A few of us on here did wonder a few tears ago that as his first-class game was so good, would playing one-day cricket change him. He then became a superb one-day player but then he suffered in the CC. Now over the last few years, he has been solid in all formats. Does England await, great for him to get picked but then again, I would really miss seeing him play for us.

I like the typo in the first line - unless you really do get that upset!

Well spotted GS. I often do that when 2 letters are next to each other. I do love my team but I don't think I have cried over them (Even in the 1980's) yet. You will have me worried now and checking for every word to make sure I don't make more mistakes.

Sibley not going on to get big tons is a slight worry for me. There is an opening slot up for grabs in the England team with Crawley surely on the verge of being canned and Dom is going to have to go big in the 2nd half of the season to try to force his way back into the test squad now. He was in such good form pre-season but keeps getting out when set

Really good game this

What a difference with Norwell finally back. He gives the bowling attack that extra edge.