Squad named for return of CB40

Chris Adams has named a 13 man squad for the return of the Clydesdale Bank 40 against the Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Guildford tomorrow.

Paceman Chris Tremlett has been rested for this game, as his workload cannot be overloaded after just coming back from a serious back injury. That means that other bowlers such as Chris Jordan and Tim Linley have a chance of playing. However, with the way that Surrey play in the CB40, there may only be spaces for two seamers in the side, and they may well go to Stuart Meaker and Jon Lewis who have also been named in the side. I would be inclined to give the Viscount a go as he has been waiting for his chance for months now.

The batting has been seriously been weakened, with Kevin Pietersen now joining up with the England squad to prepare for the opening test match against South Africa  next week, Rory Hamilton-Brown is on compassionate leave, and obviously Tom Maynard sadly passed away almost 4 weeks ago. That means that we will have to rely on a few of our younger batsman from now on, with Rory Burns and Zafar Ansari both included, along with the now experienced one day batsman Matthew Spriegel. All three will have to play, as Batty batting at 7 is a position too high in One Day cricket.

Gary Wilson has returned from Ireland though, and is available for selection. Gary has been in fantastic form over the last few weeks, having a fantastic Twenty 20 campaign, and is on the back of a 70 against Afghanistan last week in Belfast.

There are 4 spinners in the squad, with Spriegel, Ansari and Batty joined by overseas star Murali Kartik. As I said previously, Surrey like to play just the two frontline seamers, with de Bruyn backing up, so it is likely that all of the spinners will play and try and limit the runs scored in the middle overs of the innings. All 4 of them are in good form with the ball, so they will be an important factor in whether we win or not tomorrow.

It seems an age since we last played a game in the CB40, and so far we have defended our title well, claiming 4 victories out of 6, with the other 2 rained off. However, without key players for a variety of reasons, this is going to be a new test for our players, and they will be facing an incredibly talented Nottinghamshire line up, who have an array of exceptional One Day batsmen. Hales, Lumb, Taylor and Patel to name but a few, and it will be an interesting battle between them, and our stronger suit of bowling.

It’s always a good day out for the CB40 game at Guildford, and with the weather forecast looking good, I would highly recommend attending.

Surrey Squad:

Gareth Batty (C)

Jason Roy

Steve Davies (WK)

Zander de Bruyn

Rory Burns

Gary Wilson

Matthew Spriegel

Zafar Ansari

Murali Kartik

Jon Lewis

Stuart Meaker

Chris Jordan

Tim Linley

Nottinghamshire Squad:

Chris Read (C, WK)

Alex Hales

Michael Lumb

Rikki Wessels

Adam Voges

Samit Patel

James Taylor

Steven Mullaney

Jake Ball

Graeme White

Andy Carter

Darren Pattinson

Harry Gurney