Away again.

Jack Morley recalled for Lancs, no Lyon maybe?

https://edgbaston.com/fixtures/first-xi/lancashire-vs-warwickshire-friday-24th-may-2024/

So Ali back and Miles returns. Hain has to sit this one out due to concussion protocol. Benjamin added after his 100 and double 100 in the 2’s.

Annoying that Hain can’t play due to the concussion rules, but safety first when it comes to things like that.
Finally got enough seam bowlers, with Miles and Hassan back.

Briggs must be injured I assume? That’s a fair old squad to travel with!

All of a sudden in a situation where whichever one of the seamers misses out can consider themselves a bit unlucky.

Briggs is out with a finger injury sustained in training.

I think it would harsh to leave out either Rae or Simmons after they took 5 wickets each against Essex last week, Ali should play so i think we'll go with 4 seamers with Burgess batting at 7.

My predicted XI: Yates, Davies, Rhodes, Barnard, Mousley, Bethell, Burgess, Rae, Simmons, Ali & Hannon-Dalby.

I would bring in Benjamin, Lintott and Ali for Hain, Mousley and Simmons.

I’d bring in those three for hain mousley and possible bethell. Time robbo made some tough decisions.

Going in with 8 batsmen and not enough specialist bowlers and relying on all rounders was never a good idea. Hopefully the team will be more balanced for this match.

FarmerPalmer wrote:

I’d bring in those three for hain mousley and possible bethell. Time robbo made some tough decisions.

I agree with you FP. I think Mousley & Bethell have had enough opportunities (for now - they will be back). Hassan is obvious, but Benjamin & Lintott deserve a (few) chance(s).

No play before lunch which will be taken at 12:30

Forecast not looking great for all 4 days at this point.

Covers are coming off (slowly) Pitch inspection at 1:30pm

Won the toss, batting first

TEAM:

Rob Yates
Alex Davies(c)
Will Rhodes
Dan Mousley
Ed Barnard
Jacob Bethell
Michael Burgess(wk)
Michael Rae
Olly Hannon-Dalby
Hassan Ali
Jake Lintott

This XI has to perform well here as some people are missing out when they probably don't deserve to.

73 - 1 at Tea, the Captain's playing a responsible innings - 35 runs in just over 2 hours.

Problem is this glacial scoring rate causes problems of its own.
I’m glad the batters are playing responsibly, but it can’t be either throw your wicket away or go at 2 runs an over all innings.
You have to be able to score whilst batting properly.
You lose a couple of quick ones and how long you’ve batted is irrelevant, because the score hasn’t gone anywhere.

82-3….

It really is a weak looking batting unit

Problem for Davies now does he carry on digging in or does he try to score more quickly?