I believe I've done this the last few seasons so here I am again..So !

Guess the following

Position in County championship

The Blast

One day cup (very hard to guess)

And finally..team for our first game

I will go first

County championship..relegated, I really fear for our batting line up

T20 blast..quarter finals

One day royal cup..group stage.

First game

Davies
Yates
Rhodes
Hain
Mousley
Barnard
Burgess
Woakes (Rushworth if unavailable)
Norwell
Hasan Ali
OHD

That opening combination will not put any fear into opening bowlers.
If Chris wokes is available, I'd have him batting at 5 or 6 and have Briggs in for Mousley, you don't go into a game at Taunton without a front line spinner.

It might even be worth having Bethell to open the batting and be the second spinner.

It's not often I agree with Highveld but he's right this time. Briggs to play. Bethell can't do worse than Davies. I'd also bat Burgess at 5.
We'll stay up. Easily if we see a fair bit of Woakes.

Chris more than capable of batting at 5, indeed if he did it may well extend his career, as a batting all rounder, with reduced strain on his knees.

How confident are we of Hasan Ali's availability for the first 2 games? Pakistan have a series against NZ coming up. I think?

We'll be about 6th or 7th in the County Championship, we'll flirt with relegation but it will be nothing like last season. We won't threaten the top 2 or 3.

Anything less than Finals Day, even winning it, should be considered a failure for the T20. Ridiculous amount of firepower in the side. The club is clearly prioritising this comp too.

One Day Cup. Really enjoyed this comp the last couple of years, hope to see young players continuing to get opportunity.

XI for Taunton, difficult to say. Think one or two of the seamers are going to be very disappointed. Especially if Woakes and Hasan are available. Does Davies still get in? Yates and Rhodes to open? Who goes 3? Not sure about Woakes batting 5, I think his batting has regressed a bit. I've got this weird feeling that Davies plays and keeps, no Burgess. I don't endorse that though. Hope Dan Mousley gets a go, it's time. Will Bethell usurp Briggs at some point? Briggs was poor last season and has been injured this winter. We could potentially bat very deep with Bethell in and I feel as though his bowling has improved. Seamers OHD, Hasan, Woakes, Norwell, Barnard, Rushworth. They can't all get in? Can they?!

Rambling now...

One thing is for sure, if it don't work out this season, it's on Robinson. He's got his way on coaching staff and playing squad now. Some good players who didn't wanna leave got let go in Lamb and Stone. Team selection got increasingly weird as the 2022 season went on. Don't think Gavin Larsen will be as hands on or as involved as Farby was on the playing side. This is Robbo now. And he didn't impress last season.

I’m not sure Bethell has the skills yet as a championship bowler. He can be quite expensive. But how he develops as a bowler this year and next might give a clue to how this side will look for years to come.

I do hope your feeling of Davies keeping and Burgess not playing isn’t proved true. If it comes to pass, it’ll be a clear sign that it’s a personal issue between Robinson and Burgess, and isn’t to do with actual performances. Which is pretty weak for a head coach and the opposite of how it should work, but it wouldn’t surprise me either as Robinson has shown this with other players and coaches.

I think we’ll end up with:
Yates
Davies
Rhodes
Hain
Barnard
Burgess
Woakes
Briggs
Norwell
Rushworth
OHD

With Ali to come in when he arrives, and then an extra bat, maybe Mousley or Bethell, when Woakes is unavailable.

Championship 6th. Although looking at it from a positive point off view if we have a really good start with the bowlers we have available in the first block of championship matches who knows we could be contenders. But would agree with whats already been posted on this thread, the batting is a worry. Really need every batsmen to be better than last year. My team would be for
the first game Davies, Yates, Mousley, Hain, Rhodes, Burgess, Woakes, Briggs, Norwell, Ali, OHD.
With only 7 players taken away from us, unlike last year when it was 13 i think we will get to the knockout stage in the 50 over comp. Likewise we also get to the knockout stage in theT20.
Unless i have missed it we still do not know how many teams will get relegated in Div 1 this year, which i think is crazy not knowing with only 12 days to go to the season starting.

With exception off Hain obvoiusly

The ECB website says about the 2023 season: "There will be 10 counties in Division One and eight in Division Two with a two-up, two-down promotion-and-relegation system."

Position in County championship

I'm going to be optimistic and say 3rd
I think this could well be Lancashire's season pipping Surrey and I think there'll be a shoot out for 3rd between the fading Essex/Hants along with us and Somerset with Notts and Northants my tips to be relegated.

The Blast
Finals Day

One day cup (very hard to guess)
4 wins 3 losses and a tie

And finally..team for our first game
Yates
Davies
Mousley
Hain
Rhodes
Burgess
Barnard
Briggs
Hassan
Norwell
OHD

i thought next year division 1 was going back to 8 teams which is why i said it has not yet been said how many teams are being relegated. Apologies if i am mistaken. Or have the ECB changed there minds. Can anyone tell me whats going on

Think it's been assumed they'd go back to 8+10 certainly that was my feeling before Xmas. However the only thing I've heard lately is there'll be no major changes for 2024 so that suggests 10+8 being retained. Of course they could announce something over the next 7 days

One change is that a draw will be worth five points rather than eight. Also, the first batting bonus point will require 250 runs inside 110 overs rather than 200 runs, rising in 50 run stages up to 450.

Here's my season preview for Deep Extra Cover:
https://deepextracover.com/2023/03/warwickshire-ccc-season-preview-2023/
As usual, I am open to (constructive) criticism!

GerryShedd wrote:

Here's my season preview for Deep Extra Cover:
https://deepextracover.com/2023/03/warwickshire-ccc-season-preview-2023/
As usual, I am open to (constructive) criticism!

Seems fairly spot on to me. According to the weekly e-mail today they are looking to the second game for Chris Woakes to return. Agreed Bethell in his place. Otherwise that looks a long tail, given we now have Ed Barnard I think we would have to leave one of the seamers out for Dan Mousley. Maybe be Hasan Ali depending on level of readiness or otherwise Chris Rushworth?

Surely if a player is signed as the main overseas player he should be expected to arrive fully fit and ready to play.
The club is investing a lot of money into Hassan Ali, with wages, flights, visa and accomodation, it is not unreasonable to expect him to b e fit and ready to play.

He hasn't played a match for a fortnight so I think it would be reasonable for him to arrive in decent shape to play, otherwise he is going to get paid for nothing this next week.
(Sorry to agree with you again, Highveld).
By the way, just about everyone except the Club seem to accept that he is Hasan rather than Hassan - but so longs as he doesn't mind, I suppose it doesn't matter too much.
I also do think that, almost regardless of which of the pace bowlers we pick, we are in danger of having a bit of a tail - that's unless OH-D decides to go for his maiden hundred.

Highveld wrote:

Surely if a player is signed as the main overseas player he should be expected to arrive fully fit and ready to play.
The club is investing a lot of money into Hassan Ali, with wages, flights, visa and accomodation, it is not unreasonable to expect him to b e fit and ready to play.

With regard to Hassan I was just going by what the club have said this week. Yes I sincerely hope he is ready.

The main problem is having a pair of opening batsmen that make OHD look good with the bat :-)