Still awaiting squad news; but I assume our new Kiwi will be in action.
Amongst those presumably missing will be the pace bowling sextet of:
Liam Norwell
Craig Miles
Chris Rushworth
Michael Booth
(all injured)
Hasan Ali
Chris Woakes
(absent elsewhere)
Jamal added to the list of injured quicks
https://edgbaston.com/fixtures/first-xi/essex-vs-warwickshire-friday-17th-may-2024/
Difficult to predict the XI tomorrow. Really depend on conditions I suppose. Allinson and Beard being amongst Essex squad would suggest pitch will favour seam. Essex spinners would be playing regardless of the conditions due to their quality and batting ability (Critchley). Chance Rae and Simmons play? Rae and Briggs more likely?
Lintott for Briggs maybe.
A crazy situation with so many seam bowlers injured or unavailable. Once again the club fails to give any information on likely timescales for players to return. I can see a relegation scrap unfortunately.
GerryShedd wrote:
Essex squad here:
https://essexcricket.org.uk/2024/05/16/match-preview-essex-v-warwickshire-5/
Our squad:-
https://edgbaston.com/fixtures/first-xi/essex-vs-warwickshire-friday-17th-may-2024/#match-match-previews
"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !"
Andy wrote:
Difficult to predict the XI tomorrow. Really depend on conditions I suppose. Allinson and Beard being amongst Essex squad would suggest pitch will favour seam. Essex spinners would be playing regardless of the conditions due to their quality and batting ability (Critchley). Chance Rae and Simmons play? Rae and Briggs more likely?
My bet is Simmons and Briggs to be left out - they'll give Lintott a bash, see if he can better Briggs' contribution this season.
"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !"
I could see a world where one of Mousley or Bethell doesn’t play, especially with Briggs at 8, just to strengthen the bowling.
Otherwise you’d have OHD and either the lack of county championship experience of Rae & Simmons, or Briggs instead of one of those.
Because as well as Rhodes and Barnard can bowl sometimes, they’re very much batters first, not strike bowlers
It would be harsh, but otherwise the team is very lopsided, and you run the risk of bowling your batters into the ground, leading to them not performing too.
We are batting first. Rae and Simmons make their debuts.
Yates
Davies
Rhodes
Hain
Barnard
Mousley
Bethell
Burgess
Rae
Hannon-Dalby
Simmons
Not sure how serious a red ball option Lintott actually is.
Good luck to Rae and Che. Interested in particular to see Simmons pace.
Pretty damning for the spinners that with 7 potential first team seam options unavailable they still don't get picked. Maybe the pitch is really tailored that way though.
Am glad to see Simmons get a go though, we need to have a look at these sorts of players/give them experience.
This is going well
Back to the shocking batting we're so used to !
His bowling won't always pose a threat on flat pitches but Ed Barnard is giving guaranteed runs week in week out at the moment.
He’s been a superb signing. Seems extremely level headed and since this time last year once he got settled in his new surroundings, he’s just kept improving, and really been a player that the team relies on.
He always plays so responsibly, doesn't
do anything rash. Never gives it away.
People wanted him dropped at one point last season, it was absolutely wild.
He should be given his full county cap, there are others who did less and were given the cap.
Yes, while the bowling recruitment has rightfully come under scrutiny in the last couple of seasons, there’s no doubting that the club got this signing spot on.