CrawlingFox

Sounds like England material no?

Agree with this. Swindells is 26 so not like he's a young prospect anymore. I think his current role in the squad as Cox's backup suits him well and gives us good solid cover but can't see him displacing the older man anytime soon. Suspect Handcomb might take the gloves were Cox to get injured to be honest. Is Swindells a strong enough bat to make the side? I think he's OK but I'm not sure he's pushing any of the players we've seen in the top 6 or 7 so far.

He's class. He, Hill, Holland and Handscomb give the side a real spine with great experience and as you say, grit. You can almost guarantee at least a couple will perform very well in any given innings.

Given that Trevaskis seems unfavoured we could do a lot worse than Ahmed and Parky as a spin pairing for the Blast if Parky would otherwise be sat doing nothing. Would prefer we just play Trevaskis though as he's a good player.

Bracey is a very good bat, his England call up seemed to somewhat derail his career but towards the end of last season and so far this season he's turned it back around and he's been superb so no issue with not not being able to shift him. He can do that. Frustrating to see the tail hanging about so long though. Hull's figures are again poor, we could do with him finding his England form as think that's the best he's bowled outside of white ball cricket. Credit to Green who stepped up today with the 5fer.

I think it's great that we've made a positive start especially given we've either missed or mostly missed: Out best batter - Patel Our best bowler - Wright Our best (or at least most hyped) bowling prospect - Hull You've got to give credit to the likes of Ahmed stepping in to open to good effect, Holland who has bowled superbly, Scriven with a 5fer that given better weather might have been match defining and Ben Mike has 10 wickets at 30 so far. Great to see so many players stepping up and when everyone is fit Thomas will have some genuinly tricky selection decisions to make. Given the squad hasn't been transformed you've got to give the coaching staff credit for the progress made over the Winter.

Proving to be a really solid acquisition with both bat and ball for us. Does whatever job we need as well, whether it's opening the bowling or the batting he steps in and does a steady job.

Need to break the partnership of he and Madsen. The longer they're together the more I don't like it!

I suspect given the win last week they're looking to make sure we follow up with a draw at worst so perhaps a bit of a safety first approach. Would have taken a win and a draw from the first 2 games before the season started but does feel like we could have been a bit more ambitious today. Needed to score faster yesterday afternoon really, feels an opportunity missed now.

Good position to be in at this point. Piles the pressure on them to score as well and whilst they have the runs in that batting lineup, I don't think they can score them at the same pace.

Clearly has bucket loads of ability but so far for us has failed to make match winning contributions in either four day or more worryingly given his playing style t20 cricket. Hopefully this season he turns that around.

I noticed Ahmed batting at 3 during some franchise stuff in the Winter. He's moved around all over the order for us but wonder if he's targeting a top order role now he's a bit older and worked on/knows his game a bit more.

A knock for Wright is a blow but in theory Hull who was apparently near a return is exactly what we need in the attack so we do have someone to come in. Left armer, rapid, homegrown, already capped by England... He's generally been pretty poor for us in four day cricket so far. 16 wickets in 10 games at 63. But he's going to come good eventually and if it was to be this season we could be in serious business. This is the first innings I think where Budinger played normally and even though he didn't go on it looked promising I thought, especially if Patel will miss a few week (admittedly another blow). Guessing Kimber will come in and any of Hill, Holland or Kimber could open, based on previous selections they'll draw straws.

Mike's a capable bat when he's in the mood. Think if he'd converted that 99* where he got stranded a few seasons ago then he might have pushed on on that regard. Would have given him great confidence.

It's sobering to see. They're probably at or around the same level of shiteness as us, maybe slightly worse in fact but at least seem to have it together off the pitch and haven't haemorrhaged money at the same time as being awful. Sounds like they've been able to steadily invest in improvements to their ground as well and won't need to spend any of the Hundred money on clearing debts instead being able to invest for growth. It's worrying as we'll lose out on a chunk of that money through having to clear debt and given what we've been losing each year we have a lot of ground to make up before any investments cancel out the losses. Should be some hard questions for Jarvis on how they can break even consistently and we lose big 6 figure sums each season.

Scriven is an odd player. He bats well enough at times that he looks like he could be an option in the middle order. He bowls well enough (season before last especially) that he looks a frontline bowler. At other times he looks very much bits and pieces. No doubt this is why he's with us but if he can put it all together and find consistency - do a Patel so to speak - then we've a serious player.

Last season's pace bowlers in the CC, wickets and avg: Currie 29 at 31 Mike 26 at 35 Holland 14 at 36 Green 11 at 39 Salisbury 10 at 44 Scriven 15 at 58 Wright 2 at 80 Wood 2 at 92 Hull 2 at 182 We could be in trouble if several don't step up massively.

Hadn't considered Kimber as an option for captaincy. Hope it suits him well. As a batter he's capable of box office hitting with a strike rate above 150 but he's very inconsistent. 4 50s and a high score of 59* and an average below 20 is poor for someone whose shown enough glimpses of being a proper big hitter with power to spare. I really hope he can find the consistency this year to offer more match winning knocks.

Masood could be a useful signing. He brings experience, captaincy and he's potentially a heavy run scorer. I think van Beek is an ok signing. He's a reasonably ok bowler who can hold a bat as a bonus. Our red ball bowling was absolutely woeful last season with the exception of Currie so a gun pace bowler would have been nice but budgets probably mean van Beek is our best bet. An attack of van Beek, Wright and Holland is dads army stuff with Salisbury not fsr behind so hopefully Mike steps up, Scrivo finds his form from the tail end of 2023 and Wood, Hull and Green get and take opportunities.

Rehan Ahmed is playing in the UAE t20 league. Came in at 3 in his first game and hit 46 off of 27 balls. Perhaps he'll develop into the big hitting fulcrum the top order needs.

Budinger and Evans are basically opposite ends of the scale. One has the temperament but scores at snail pace and the other has all the aggression and scoring shots you could want but only plays one way which normally doesn't result in many runs. Need to merge them into one player.

Agree with this. No doubt the best we can do with our budget is find players with the raw materials and hope that our coaches can help them smooth off the rough edges or adapt their mentalities. Hill and Patel are examples of where this mostly seems to have worked with the former previously evolving from an ok keeper into the fulcrum of our batting and the latter turning from Essex cast off into a very good all format opening bat. That being said both finished the season absolutely awfully (Hill never really got started) and all can look to Handscomb for an example of where they need to aim. Bowling was pretty atrocious all round and needs sorted. Need to make sure Hull and Green maximise their potential as can picture the calls for Hull to move on if he continues to shine for England but toil for us in red ball.

Be careful what you wish for. If the ECB gets its way we'll be playing the minor counties regularly when they decide the likes of us and Derbyshire or Northants are standing in the way of their test ground based franchise cricket dreams.

What level will he be playing at? Fair play to him.

The pitches are either absolutely roads or they're very lively indeed.