Durham will be looking to bounce back when they take on Leicestershire Foxes tomorrow at the Uptonsteel County Ground in the first of back-to-back matches in the Midlands.
Ryan Campbell has named a 14 player squad as his side head to Grace Road to face Leicestershire in Durham’s third match in the Vitality Blast at 6:30pm.
Michael Jones has now joined up with Scotland for their men’s ICC World Cup T20 campaign and will remain with Scotland throughout the remainder of their tournament.
David Bedingham has been added to the squad ahead of this weekend and if selected will make his first appearance for the club in the short format since 2022 – as Durham beat Lancashire by 2 wickets in Chester le Street.
Words from Alex Lees
We know we’ve put in two pretty underwhelming performances against Birmingham Bears and Lancashire Lightning. We were so excited coming into this tournament, quite frankly its not been good enough.
I’m still very optimistic, we’ve got a good squad. We started amazing last year and won our early games, and we didn’t even qualify.”
When we get to this week we need to get something together and build some momentum going through the tournament.
Squad v Leicestershire Foxes (7 June)
Colin Ackermann, David Bedingham, Jonathan Bushnell, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, Ben Dwarshuis, Alex Lees*, Haydon Mustard, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Ollie Robinson+, Nathan Sowter, Ashton Turner
Opposition Corner
Captain: Peter Handscomb
Overseas players: Wiaan Mulder (South Africa), Peter Handscomb (Australia)
Finals Day appearances: Five (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011)
Titles: Three (2004, 2006, 2011)
2023 finish: Ninth (North Group)
2023 leading run-scorer: Rishi Patel (390)
2023 leading wicket-taker: Callum Parkinson (17)
Key winter moves: Nine players from the Foxes’ 2023 campaign have departed, notably former skipper Colin Ackermann and left-arm spinner Parkinson. Liam Trevaskis (ex-Durham) is a like-for-like replacement for the latter. Ben Mike returns from Yorkshire and Ben Cox (ex-Worcestershire) will keep wicket, with on-loan Hampshire duo Scott Currie and Ian Holland added to the squad plus Somerset’s Lewis Goldsworthy.
Wildcard watch: A wildcard pick for Trent Rockets after taking 15 wickets in the 2022 Blast campaign, Ben Mike missed out on The Hundred last year following his switch to Yorkshire. Always good for a few late runs too, he’ll be keen to put himself back in the frame.
Final thought: With Ackermann’s departure in particular, it feels like a new era for the Foxes – but one that sees the one-time T20 kings in need of a revival. Just seven home victories in three seasons has left things feeling flat at times on a ground that needs atmosphere and excitement. Australian international Handscomb takes over the captaincy, with a morale-boosting opening-night win against Yorkshire his first objective.
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 Durham’s match centre and Leicestershire YouTube channel. Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.