Middlesex Cricket announce the following sixteen-man squad for the Champion County match against MCC, to be played in the Sheikh Zayed International Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, between Sunday 26th March and Wednesday 29th March 2017.
Middlesex Cricket have travelled to Abu Dhabi from Dubai, where they have just completed a week’s pre-season tour. The squad took part in two tour matches whilst in Dubai, firstly a fifty over match against Essex, which ended in defeat last week, and then a forty over clash against Durham, which went in Middlesex’s favour earlier this week.
This will be the first time that Middlesex Cricket have taken part in the day/night format of the Champion County fixture, which will be played with a pink Dukes ball, and will see them pitted against a strong MCC side including several players currently involved in the England International set-up.
Ben Duckett, Adam Lyth and Liam Plunkett lead the way for MCC as full England internationals, whilst Alex Lees, Tom Alsop, Joe Clarke, Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton and Jack Leach all have England Lions experience.
Middlesex themselves are also able to call upon international experience for the clash, with Nick Compton, Steven Finn, James Franklin. Dawid Malan and Sam Robson all having been involved in full international squads previously, whilst James Fuller, Nick Gubbins, James Harris and Tom Helm have all earned Lions caps.
There are some notable absentees from the Middlesex squad, with both Toby Roland-Jones and Ollie Rayner absent, having returned to the UK for a rest period, after both enduring a busy winter. Tim Murtagh and Paul Stirling are both currently with the Ireland International squad, Adam Voges is travelling to the UK to join up with the Middlesex squad when they return from Abu Dhabi, and Eoin Morgan is joining up with his IPL franchise, Kings XI Punjab.
Middlesex Cricket sixteen-man squad…
Nick Compton
Stephen Eskinazi
Steven Finn
James Franklin (capt)
James Fuller
Nick Gubbins
James Harris
Tom Helm
Ryan Higgins
Dawid Malan
Ravi Patel
Harry Podmore
Sam Robson
George Scott
John Simpson (wk)
Nathan Sowter
