Attention now turns to red ball cricket with an eye of progressing into Division 1 when Durham travel to Birmingham to face Warwickshire at Edgbaston, starting tomorrow [Sunday 4 July]
County Championship cricket returns after three weeks of Vitality Blast T20s with James Franklin naming a squad of 13 for the Bears clash. Durham are currently in fourth place in Group 1 with 111 points, while Warwickshire sit in top spot with 120 points.
Ben Stokes could make his first County Championship appearance for Durham since 2018 where he took 9 wickets in the match against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham College.
Sean Dickson is also included back in the 13 man-squad for the first time this summer, having performed consistently in the T20 squad and after a number of innings with the Seconds earlier in the season, during their Championship campaign.
Alex Lees is recovering well from a broken hand but remains on the sideline and is not yet available for selection for this round of Championship matches.
Squad v Birmingham Bears: 4-7 July
Scott Borthwick (c), Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Chris Rushworth, David Bedingham, Michael Jones, Ned Eckersley (wk), Jack Burnham, Ben Stokes, Sean Dickson, Matt Salisbury, Ben Raine. Cameron Bancroft
Words from Sean Dickson
“The four day game has come at a good time for us after a busy few weeks with T20s. I am in the squad for Warwickshire this week, whether I play or not is a different matter but I have been itching to play, my injury came at a bad time and the guys took their opportunity, which shows a good squad of players which is good signs for Durham. If I get my opportunity hopefully I will take it and we can go from there.”
The Opposition
Coach: Mark Robinson
Captain: Will Rhodes
Last Year’s Performance: Third (Central Group)
2020 Leading Runscorer: Will Rhodes (423, 52.88)
2020 Leading Wicket Taker: Olly Hannon-Dalby (25, 20,92)
Overseas players: Hanuma Vihari
Key man: Olly Stone – Unlucky not to play more for England during the winter, Stone has much impressed around the national team and Warwickshire will look for some explosive early-season displays from him.
Flies under the radar: Will Rhodes – As captain, Rhodes’ influence will be huge, but he has also quickly become integral to the Bears batting and also an under-rated threat with the ball.
Best Player Under 24: Dan Mousley – Director of cricket Paul Farbrace believes it is only a matter of time before the classy young batsman (19) plays for England and few who have seen him play disagree.
The Season Ahead: Warwickshire have under-performed in red ball cricket in the last two years but, under new first team coach Mark Robinson, there is a belief around Edgbaston that better fortunes await this year.
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 Warwickshire’s YouTube channel.