Middlesex head back into Rothesay County Championship action at Lord's this week, with visitors Kent in opposition.
First Team Coach Richard Johnson has named a squad of thirteen for the clash, which starts tomorrow.
Leus du Plooy is a forced absentee from the squad, missing out after sustaining a painful blow to an already injured toe whilst playing against Derbyshire. He rests for this game and will be in contention for a return against Leicestershire - Middlesex's next game at Lord's in a fortnight's time.
Both Nathan Fernandes and Blake Cullen also miss out on inclusion in the squad to face Kent, with opener Sam Robson coming back into the group, returning from three games out on paternity leave, whilst Josh De Caires also comes in, having impressed with both bat and ball for the Club recently in the Second Eleven. Also joining the squad is right-arm quick Naavya Sharma, who gets his first inclusion in a County Championship squad.
Middlesex head into this week's game having fought hard up in Derbyshire for a well-earned draw, where we picked up eleven points from the game to remain in fourth place in the Division Two table.
There were runs in the first innings up in Derby for du Plooy (52), Jack Davies (54) and Ben Geddes (59), who continued his great start to life in a Middlesex shirt, hitting his fourth half-century in four games, whilst Stephen Eskinazi (61), Ryan Higgins (56), Zafar Gohar (52), and Max Holden (94) scored runs in the second innings, with Holden passing 500 runs in the process and maintained his position as the leading run-scorer in Division Two.
Middlesex will be looking to reverse the result from the away fixture against Kent, three weeks ago, when, after dominating for large parts of the game down in Canterbury, Kent took control on the final day to knock off the fourth innings target to secure an eight wicket win.
Kent head to Lord's unbeaten in their three games played to date, having started their campaign with a convincing win against Northamptonshire, by 145 runs, before then beating Middlesex by eight wickets. Their last encounter saw them draw with Gloucestershire, which sees them lying one place ahead of Middlesex, in third place, having played one game less than the sides around them.
With the ball, Nathan Gilchrist (15 wickets) and Grant Stewart (10 wickets) lead the way for Kent, with Jaskaran Singh (9) and Keith Dudgeon (8) following closely behind.
With the bat, Ben Compton is out front, with two hundreds to his name, and 383 runs at an average of 76.60, followed by Tawande Muyeye, who has 253 runs at 50.60 to his name.
Back on home soil this week, Middlesex will be hoping to back up a strong performance in their last outing at Lord's, when Glamorgan were beaten by nine wickets, in what was a dominant performance across all disciplines.
Middlesex have named the following squad for the visit of Kent this week:
If you're attending Lord's over the next four days, we hope you enjoy your visit and enjoy the game. If not, then the best way to follow the action is on the Club's live stream, available to watch on the Club's website in the Match Centre, or direct on the Club's YouTube channel.
Middlesex Men
Kent Men
