Durham continue their pre-season preparations with two fixtures next week against Durham University and Yorkshire.
Following their trip to Zimbabwe this month, next week’s fixtures will be the first opportunity for Durham to get match practice outdoors ahead of their LV=Insurance County Championship opener against Sussex at Hove.
Two squads have been named with a mixture of professional, rookie and academy players all involved.
Monday will see Durham host Durham UCCE in a three-day fixture at Seat Unique Riverside starting at 11am, while on Tuesday Durham will head to Headingley for a two-day fixture against Yorkshire.
Scott Borthwick will captain the side based in Chester le Street while Alex Lees will skipper the team playing at Headingley.
Seamers Daniel Hogg and Luke Robinson who are part of the Durham Acadmey squad will be part of the squad travelling to Yorkshire.
Words from Ryan Campbell
We went to Zimbabwe with a real goal of winning six out of six and we did that, I think this Durham team need to understand that winning is a habit, it doesn’t matter who we play against, we are there to win. We saw enough from the bowlers that we have a real good fast bowling group. There were some really good signs from both the batters and bowlers, so we walk away from Zimbabwe very happy with what we have seen and mission accomplished in terms of what we set out to achieve while there.
These two games next week are about us getting outdoors, getting back to playing in English conditions and learning from each other in how we are going to go about it. These games will give the guys another opportunity to learn about their roles and is a kind of shoot-out, as there are still a few spots which we are still not 100% sure about which is exciting because competition for places always drives the team. We are at that time of the season now where the players just want the season to start and get properly underway.
Squad v Durham UCCE (27-29 March)
David Bedingham, Scott Borthwick*, Jonathan Bushnell, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, George Drissell, Brandon Glover, Tom Mackintosh+, Stanley McAlindon, Ben McKinney, Ben Raine, Ross Whitfield
Squad v Yorkshire (28-29 March)
Brydon Carse, Harry Crawshaw, Luke Doneathy, Oliver Gibson, Daniel Hogg, Michael Jones, Mitchell Killeen, Alex Lees*, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson+, Luke Robinson, Liam Trevaskis
Match Centre
The Club’s match centre will be in operation for the fixture with live scorecards and statistics for the Durham University fixture. As this is a warm up game, the club are testing the live stream ahead of the new season, therefor a full production will not be available.
Information on the Yorkshire fixture will follow on our social media channels on Tuesday.