Cameron Bancroft will make his Durham return tomorrow [20 May] when Durham take on Derbyshire at the Incora County Ground.
Bancroft who has trained at Emirates Riverside over the past week since coming out of quarantine, returned to competitive action on Monday for Durham Seconds against Leicestershire at Kibworth Cricket Club.
Lead High Performance Coach James Franklin has otherwise named an unchanged squad for the Derbyshire fixture, selecting a squad of 14 for Durham’s sixth group game.
Durham go into the game tomorrow in second place, having secured a 258 run win over Worcestershire on Sunday, moving Durham three points behind Essex in top spot. Durham currently have 73 points with two wins from their 5 games played so far.
A win this week could put Durham into top spot in Group 1 – in a group where only 9 points separate first and fifth place. Derbyshire go into the game tomorrow, in sixth place with 41 points, having lost 2 games and drawn 3.
Mark Wood also remains with the Durham squad, as he continues his preparation for England’s Test series against New Zealand early next month.
Squad (20-23 May)
Scott Borthwick*, Cameron Bancroft, David Bedingham, Jack Burnham, Brydon Carse, Paul Coughlin, Ned Eckersley, Ben Raine, Chris Rushworth, Matt Salisbury, Liam Trevaskis, Alex Lees, Stuart Poynter, Mark Wood.
Words from the Head Coach
We showed another real clinical performance against Worcestershire, even with a bit of weather around on the last day, there was no sense of panic around the group, we knew that if we had enough time and we posed questions with the ball we would create enough opportunities and that is exactly what happened. It was a great win!
Players are standing up at the moment with significant performances and that is a good habit to get into, the challenge now is to keep that going. We are only halfway through the round robin phase of the Championship and there is still a lot more cricket to be played. The challenge is not to rest on our laurels and keep standing up to each day’s play. A bowler has to bowl their first ball every match and a batter has to face their first ball every match and that is the mindset that we have and will continue to have tomorrow at Derby.
It has been great to have Mark Wood with us over the past few weeks, but we look no further than the Derbyshire game. To have Mark involved for three games has been great, I guess we will see what happens after this game, it is in the hands of the ECB.
Cameron has played for the Seconds this week; he has had some good time in the middle for the Seconds and it is great to have him back. He knows the environment well from his spell in 2019 and arrives following a successful season for Western Australia and Perth Scorchers. He is raring to go and chomping at the bit to get started.
The Opposition
Head of cricket: Dave Houghton
Captain: Billy Godleman
Leading Run scorer 2021: Matt Critchley: 512
Leading Wicket Taker 2021: Matt Critchley 16.
Overseas Players: Billy Stanlake (Australia – full season), Dustin Melton (Zimbabwe – full season).
Key man: Billy Stanlake – The Australian’s reputation has been forged in white-ball cricket but the 26-year-old 6’7″ fast bowler is keen to show he can also deliver in the longer game.
Flies under the radar: Fynn Hudson-Prentice – bowls accurate medium pace and his unbeaten 91 in a thrilling win at Trent Bridge last year proved he can perform under pressure.
Best Player Under 24: Sam Conners: The 22-year-old right-arm pace bowler impressed Jimmy Anderson when he played against Lancashire in 2019. Took nine wickets in the Bob Willis Trophy last season.
Match Centre
The Club’s match centre will be in operation for the fixture with live scorecards, statistics & video highlights as they happen. You can watch the game live via the club’s match centre and clubs YouTube channel.
There will also be regular updates on Twitter, with a match report and post-match reaction on the website following the conclusion of each day.
*A reminder this fixture is a Derbyshire Members exclusive only.