Surrey head to Taunton for crunch game

Surrey can’t be officially relegated this week, but they can go a long way to doing so if they don’t collect a victory at fellow relegation rivals Somerset in the crunch LV County Championship match starting tomorrow.

Many Surrey fans believe that relegation may suit us and allow the younger players to learn their trade in the first X1 without the pressure of the possibility of relegation, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want them to win, as I will be over the moon if we can somehow get out of the mire we currently find ourselves at the foot of the table. Presently, there are only really 3 teams in the fight to stay in Division One; Derbyshire, Somerset and ourselves, but a good win this week for us could pull Nottinghamshire into the situation if they fail to beat Middlesex at Lord’s, which would help our chances of staying up.

But we have to win our game first before worrying about other sides and to do that we need our best players at our disposal. Back into the squad comes Chris Tremlett after being rested last week in the demoralising defeat to Middlesex, Zafar Ansari is available after his thumb injury and Gary Wilson is back from international duty.

Here is the squad in full and predicted line up:

Rory Burns

Dom Sibley

Hashim Amla

Vikram Solanki

Zander de Bruyn

Steve Davies

Gary Wilson

Gareth Batty (C)

Tim Linley

Chris Tremlett

Gary Keedy

Stuart Meaker

Zafar Ansari

Jade Dernbach

18 year old batsman Dom Sibley will make his First Class debut and will open the batting alongside Rory Burns in place of the out of form Arun Harinath. It’s a great opportunity for him but straight away there is lots of pressure as this is a massively important fixture, so let’s hope he can thrive on such an occasion.

Even though Ansari is back in the squad I can’t see him being picked, with Gary Wilson likely to accommodate that number 7 role. If it was down to me I would drop Gareth Batty and have Ansari as the second spinner alongside Gary Keedy, but even though Batty hasn’t been in the greatest form, he is the captain and gives a different option to Keedy’s left arm spin which performed against Middlesex. It will no doubt be a turning pitch as Somerset have once Surrey-bound leg spinner Piyush Chawla in the ranks, who almost took them to victory over Derbyshire last week.

Another option I would consider is picking Ansari ahead of Zander de Bruyn and having Davies, Wilson and Ansari occupying 5,6 and 7 in whatever order, but that would then only leave two seamers in the side and with Trem being one of them, that’s unlikely. That means that Mr Undroppable will keep his place in the side unless a third seamer is selected ahead of either Batty or Keedy.

When it comes to the bowlers, I don’t think Tremlett will be left out after the form he has shown recently, despite his position at the club looking doubtful for next year. And Linley has performed better than Dernbach and the returning Meaker of late, so if they were to go with a 2 man seam attach plus Zander, Trem and the Viscount will probably get the nod.

But whatever side Stuart Barnes and Gareth Batty pick, they need to make sure they start the game off well. Make sure you are still in the game after Day One, because too many times this year we have been out of games before we know it and it is then too late to pull things back.

If we can win this game I believe we have a good chance of staying up, but anything other than a win then I’m afraid to say we will probably go down. Good luck over the next four days lads and bring back the points.