Men’s Head Coach Peter Fulton has named a squad of 13 for our Rothesay County Championship clash against Derbyshire, which gets underway tomorrow.
There is one change from the side defeated by Kent at Merchant Taylors’ last weekend, with Naavya Sharma coming in to replace Eathan Bosch, who left the club after the Kent game following his selection for the South Africa national side for their white-ball tri-series against Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Sharma was left out of last week’s squad because university exams clashed with the fixture; this also gave the 20-year-old a chance to rest after a busy 2026 season, which has seen him feature in XX first-team matches already this summer. Sharma has 23 wickets to his name in red-ball cricket this season at an average of 24.95.
Middlesex fans would have been pleased to see Ryan Higgins back in action last week; the all-rounder took six wickets in his return to action after two months on the sidelines. Higgins took his 500th professional wicket when he bowled Matt Milnes in the first innings. Also impressing with the ball was Toby Roland-Jones, who took his 36th first-class five-wicket haul against the Spitfires.
Joe Cracknell has been excellent with the gloves this year, with 29 dismissals to his name this year; his unbeaten knock of 65 in the second innings against Kent took his Championship average up to 52.56 this campaign. He moves above captain Leus du Plooy, who now averages 51.67. Du Plooy does, however, lead the run charts for Middlesex this year. The left-hander has 775 runs to his name, the second most in Division Two this year. He’ll be eyeing up a second consecutive season of surpassing 1,000 runs in red-ball cricket.
Fulton has plenty of options available to him to open the batting in Derby this weekend. Sam Robson could be joined by Luke Hollman once again at the top of the order once again; however, should the Head Coach wish to change things around, he may opt to promote Ben Geddes to the top of the order, something we have seen multiple times this season already. Fulton has also named Nathan Fernandes in the squad. The young left-hander is yet to feature in the County Championship this year; however, he has shown what he is capable of in the One-Day Cup at the top of the order and in the second eleven.
This week’s match could prove to be season-defining for both sides. With both teams sat on 102 points, 37 behind second-placed Kent, it’s a must-win in order for either side to stay in the hunt for that second promotion spot. The full Division Two table can be seen below:
| Rothesay County Championship - Division Two | ||||||||
| Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | BatBonus | BowlBonus | Points | ||
| 1 | Durham | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 24 | 25 | 169 |
| 2 | Kent | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 23 | 139 |
| 3 | Northamptonshire | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 22 | 25 | 135 |
| 4 | Worcestershire | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 23 | 115 |
| 5 | Middlesex | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 25 | 102 |
| 6 | Derbyshire | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 21 | 25 | 102 |
| 7 | Lancashire | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 26 | 84 |
| 8 | Gloucestershire | 9 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 21 | 41 |
| Gloucestershire deducted 4 points for slow over rate | ||||||||
| Kent deducted 5 points for slow over rate | ||||||||
Derbyshire came out on top in the reverse fixture in May at Lord’s. Nightwatcher Ben Aitchison struck his maiden first-class century and took eight wickets in the match, with Wayne Madsen also reaching three figures as the visitors gave themselves a huge first-innings lead. Leus du Plooy’s 95 wasn’t enough in Middlesex’s second innings as Derbyshire were set 122 for victory, which they chased down with seven wickets to spare.
This week’s hosts were well beaten by division leaders Durham in their previous fixture. Mickey Arthur’s side scored just 240 runs in both innings as Durham came out on top by 338 runs. Aitchison, Derbyshire’s leading wicket-taker this year with 46, claimed his second five-fer of the year in that one.
Play is scheduled to get underway at 11 am on all four days in Derby. If you’re not making the trip up the M1 for this one, you can follow all the action live in the Match Centre on the Middlesex website. Middlesex’s lead commentator Kevin Hand will be joining BBC Radio Derby’s Dave Fletcher for that one. You can also stay up to date across all our social media channels.
Middlesex squad to take on Derbyshire:
Derbyshire Men
Middlesex Men
