Lead High Performance Coach James Franklin has named a 13 player squad for Durham’s opening LV=Insurance County Championship match against Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens.
Durham will get their season underway tomorrow at 11am as they look to get their Division 2 campaign off to a winning start, in what is the first of 7 County Championship matches over the next two months.
Borthwick and the rest of the Durham squad left the Riverside this morning and will have a final training session in Wales this afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s opener.
Alex Lees is set to open the batting having returned from England duty where he made his test debut in the Caribbean last month against the West Indies. While England team mates Ben Stokes and Mark Wood are not available for selection.
Brydon Carse is recovering well from the injury he sustained in Australia but is not yet available and will continue his rehabilitation with the Durham medical team.
South African overseas signing Keegan Petersen will be available for selection from next week’s home fixture against Leicestershire, with the 28 year old currently on international duty against Bangladesh.
21 year-old right-arm seamer Oliver Gibson is named in the Durham squad for the first time having impressed in pre-season and could make his first-class debut tomorrow. The former Academy graduate signed a rookie contract extension this winter having progressed through the Clubs’ pathway system.
With 59 wickets at 18.18, Chris Rushworth was once again Durham’s leading wicket taker last year and the Durham seamer will be chomping at the bit to get the ball back in his hand tomorrow in Cardiff.
Glamorgan were the visitors in Durham’s final home game of 2021 in what was an innings and 42 run victory for Durham having bowled Glamorgan out for 97 in the first innings before scoring 503 with the bat.
The visitors’ stubborn resistance through Dan Douthwaite and Andrew Slater on the third day gave the Welsh outfit hope of avoiding an innings defeat. However, the late dismissal of Douthwaite the previous evening handed the momentum to Durham, and it did not take long for the home side to secure a dominant win on the final day, inside 10 overs.
Squad v Glamorgan (7-10 April)
David Bedingham, Scott Borthwick (c), Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, Sean Dickson, Ned Eckersley +, Oliver Gibson, Michael Jones, Alex Lees, Liam Trevaskis, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Chris Rushworth
Words from James Franklin
We are all really looking forward to the season getting underway this week at Glamorgan, the excitement within the squad is high so we are all ready to go on Thursday. We have to deal with the first ball, the first session on day 1 and we move through the match from there.
We were very good at working our way through the game last year and became a harder team to beat, but that doesn’t mean we are automatically going to get results this year. It is a long hard up and down grind the season but if we can have more up days than down days then we stand a good chance of getting promoted come the end of the season.
The Opposition
Coach: Matthew Maynard
Captain: David Lloyd
Last year’s performance: 6th (Division 2)
2021 leading run scorer: Kiran Carlson (928, 48.84)
2021 leading wicket taker: Michael Hogan (34, 25.20)
Overseas players: Michael Neser (Australian), Marnus Labuschagne (Australian)
Key player: Kiran Carlson – Vice-captain Kiran Carlson comes in to the Durham clash on the back of an impressive pre-season scoring 148 against Cardiff UCCE earlier this week and is vital to Glamorgan’s middle order. A superb 2021 for the 23-year-old saw him top score in the run charts for Glamorgan with 928 runs at 48.84 with a highest score of 170*.
Under the radar: Dan Douthwaite – The 24-year-old was Glamorgan’s leading wicket-taker in the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020 and the all-rounder will be hoping for another positive season. He fell 4 runs short of a second first-class century against Durham last season at the Riverside with 96, scoring 482 runs and 17 wickets.
Young potential: Callum Taylor – Callum Taylor became only the fourth Glamorgan player to score a century on his first-class debut when he smashed an 88-ball ton at Wantage Road, finishing on 106 from 94 balls. The 23-year-old has played in 8 first-class matches, featuring 6 times in 2021, scoring 215 runs.
Match Coverage
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 Glamorgan’s YouTube channel.
There will also be regular updates on Twitter, with a match report on the website following the conclusion of each day.