He strikes me as a player who’d be playing regularly now had he come through somewhere like Sussex or Leicestershire. Smaller counties whose best players are often snapped up, and rely on producing a lot of their own talent.
But opportunities have been limited the last couple of years, but even when he has played he’s not really taken the chance and run with it.
Best of luck to him though.

Is that 4 or 5 chances Bairstow has blown now? Not sure who’s selection has been a bigger bust him or Moeen.

How much longer has he got on his contract. As good as he is when healthy. It’s irrelevant when it’s one match a season.
He’s had 1 fully fit season, and I suspect much of that was to do with Pop Welch.

I can never keep track of these now. Hain was supposedly fit enough to be in the squad now he’s out for approximately 4 weeks.
Norwell was supposedly targeting July, and now he’s many weeks away, and from the sounds of it, it’ll be September for county championship.
I understand Mikes and Brookes. These things happen.
But from a physical point of view I can’t quite understand how Bethell can bat, but not bowl spin.
He gives the ball a mighty whack, twists his back etc when batting. Surely no less stressful on the back than spin bowling?

Predictions?

I’ve got Australia winning 3-2. No close tests.
England to lose the first test.

Heard from a couple of reliable sources that Will Rhodes is considering giving up the captaincy next year. And potentially sooner if his CC form doesn’t improve.
He’s been frustrated by his own form, but is happy whilst the side is performing well. Robinson is aware, and Davies as VC would be appointed.
Apparently Rhodes is also frustrated that he isn’t being considered to go out on loan for T20, as it’s a bad look for the club captain. But he also isn’t getting in the T20 side despite scoring a lot of runs in the seconds.
Robinson has countered this by including him in the most recent squad. But Rhodes knows realistically with a fit Hain and available Moeen, he won’t get into that side as it stands. Yates currently seen as a better option.

I hope this is a case of including him to keep Worcester on their toes. And so they think that he might play.

Because risking him and getting hurt more, really jeopardises the season. A real hamstring tear is 6-8 weeks. So whilst it’s a strain surely you lean towards being overly cautious, and back the rest of the batting line up to score enough in this one match.

Essex and Surrey have just announced that Dan Lawrence will be joining Surrey next season.

Starting to get a bit silly now. Any decent player that comes up just gets snapped up by Surrey.

Far too early to be writing off a championship push.
If anything I’m heartened by the display this week.
An average team wouldn’t have been able to do that on a pitch that flat against a team that’s got plenty of good batting in it.

Most batting points in the division. Full bowling points. A game in hand. Still to play Surrey again. I also think in the next couple of rounds of fixtures Surrey will struggle with the Kookaburra ball. Whilst in OHD and Ali we have players suited to extract the most from it. And there’s a lot of cricket to be played.

Afterwards from Rich Wilford that it’s a hamstring issue. And he can bat if required. However the idea is to ensure he is fit for the T20 on Friday against Worcestershire. Which suggests it isn’t too bad.
Probably also shows where the team are mentally, they still feel they can get this done without batting again. So a big first hour with the new ball, a wicket or 2, goes a long way to getting that done.

Still pretty positive. Took 9 wickets today. Only 6 needed tomorrow.
Use the new ball well and should get it done. They have a fairly long tail.

Follow on enforced.
Obviously they’re backing themselves to not have an issue with the heat.

Someone has pointed out that it’s not as if this is the end of a 4 match stretch. OHD, Rushworth and Ali have played just one T20 between them in the last few weeks. So should be in good shape. Barnard has had plenty of rest too. Rhodes hasn’t done much either.
And with Briggs, Mousley and Yates, there’s plenty of spin options to allow rotation.
Got lots of bowling. Time to put it to use.

Handy that Moores and Harrison both decided to partake in coordinated batting self-destruction in consecutive balls.
They were being deeply stubborn and then….

I think it’s one of those where we need to take care of ourselves first. Then we can see their results. Let’s get these last 5, make a decision on the follow on, and see what happens.

One big thing for us is that, we’ve got 4 batting points, Surrey and Hampshire got none. We should get full bowling points (please don’t let this jinx it). So even if they win. We gain ground, and have a game in hand.
Hampshire still trail by over 100 in their second innings. Surrey trail by over 350 with Kent still having 4 wickets in hand. Let’s keep our fingers crossed but first things first, let’s take care of our business. Hopefully, some moisture and the covers have juiced the pitch up, and we can make it tough for Notts today.

Shame I’m a big fan of Matt’s.
I thought he was poorly treated last year considering he had one poor match and was dropped never to be heard from again.

If they didn’t want to offer him a new deal to let Mousley or Bethell play, then fair enough. But treat him fairly during the season.

Think it speaks a lot to our bowling depth Miles and Brookes have gone out on loan and performed well.
Johal going to Gloucestershire for 2 weeks too, so we’ll see how he does.
Plus we’re still yet to see Norwell this year.

Great to see Miles can still contribute in red ball, and smart by the club to keep him in practice.

But how can it be bad light without the floodlights being on?
Surely you turn the lights on first?

And they keep saying it’s not raining on the stream. Don’t want to be robbed due to time lost again this year. Happened with Somerset, almost with Kent.

I too appear to have really misread the pitch. Thought it would be tough going early and then lose the green and get really flat.
Appears keeping them out there for as long as we did has drained them mentally. Tough to concentrate and make the right choices when batting if you’re physically and mentally exhausted from being cooked.

OHD looks a completely different bowler in his second spell. Ball climbing off the pitch, pushing players back, then beating the edge as they hesitate to get forward.

Funny what a wicket or 2 can do for a team. Time to capitalise now.

Totally agree with the declaration seeming odd. The only thing I can think of is Rushworth came back and said that it was very flat and we’d need all the time we could get.

It’s looking very hard going for the bowlers already. But I’ll be interested to see how Briggs goes.