Leicestershire County Cricket Club

[CrawlingFox]

I think Mulder and Hendricks are going to be massive for our Chamoionship bowling.

 

Happy with Parkinson as spinner (with Ahmed in the wings) but at times Wright really had to carry the attack last season.

 

Given he's now another year older we'd have been very reliant on some combination of:

 

Davis staying fit.

Mike being much less expensive.

Sakande and/or Barnes chipping in more consistently.

Evans stepping up considerably or Walker doing well from the get go.

 

Now just any one of the above plus Wright and the two South Africans looks MUCH stronger than last season's attack.

[Stadt]

For the CC you’d expect Azad & Ackers to have a better season, Evans & Swindells to build on their last season & Hill to repeat his heroics.

 

Chuck in Patel, Kimber and useful runs from Parky, Barnes, Mulder and maybe Mike or Wright too we should post some good scores.

 

We have a lot of flexibility now with our selections - not really sure why but I have a feeling we’ll do well in the RL Cup this year 

[when_you're_smiling]

3 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

 

What's his background? I don't know anything about him. But my gut feel is good (as opposed to khan, who I didn't fancy from the get go. It was all about him. And he mortgaged the club, which I weren't keen on)

Jarvis did an interview with The Cricketer last month where he said he took it on as his dad, who has since passed away, was a huge Leics fan. 

[CrawlingFox]

8 hours ago, Stadt said:

For the CC you’d expect Azad & Ackers to have a better season, Evans & Swindells to build on their last season & Hill to repeat his heroics.

 

Chuck in Patel, Kimber and useful runs from Parky, Barnes, Mulder and maybe Mike or Wright too we should post some good scores.

 

We have a lot of flexibility now with our selections - not really sure why but I have a feeling we’ll do well in the RL Cup this year 

What do you reckon the side will look like in the Championship? As you say there are a lot of permutations we could go for but I reckon the below 10 will play:

 

Azad

Evans

Ackermann (c)

Hill

Mulder

Swindells (wk)

Parkinson

Hendricks

Wright

Davis

 

Unsure on the last selection, Rhodes end of season form and the fact Ackers didn't bat at 3 makes me wonder if Nixon will continue with Rhodes at 3 and everyone else dropping down one. I know Nixon also seems to like Mike though I think I'd prefer to see Scriven or even Barnes if we're picking an all rounder as I just think Mike's bowling is too expensive and with the addition of the South Africans it's harder to justify his inclusion. Scriven would be my pick as batting seems his strongest suite and we've four seamers in the side already so he'd only need to be fifth seamer if needed.

 

Another option would be to slot Patel or Kimber in at 5 or 6.

 

I think I'd go with the latter option and put Patel in to the above team. I think he's much better than his average and I'd like to see him prove it over a decent run in the side.

Edited 5 February 2022 by CrawlingFox

[CrawlingFox]

T20 side is tricky:

 

Gurbaz

Steel/Welch

Lilley

Ackermann (c)

Hill

Swindells (wk)

Scriven

Mike

Parkinson

Naveen

Davis/Walker

 

Is Steel back in the fold or is Welch fit? I liked Swindells coming in a bit later last season but could see him opening again if the answers to the above two questions are no.

 

I don't really want to see Mike bowling but I do rate his batting where he has good power in this format. But his inclusion has me feeling we're both a batter and a bowler short...

[Lako42]

Assembled a good squad. 

 

Really hope they get more down there off the back of it. 

[Stadt]

1 hour ago, CrawlingFox said:

T20 side is tricky:

 

Gurbaz

Steel/Welch

Lilley

Ackermann (c)

Hill

Swindells (wk)

Scriven

Mike

Parkinson

Naveen

Davis/Walker

 

Is Steel back in the fold or is Welch fit? I liked Swindells coming in a bit later last season but could see him opening again if the answers to the above two questions are no.

 

I don't really want to see Mike bowling but I do rate his batting where he has good power in this format. But his inclusion has me feeling we're both a batter and a bowler short...

Kimber & Patel have to play in the T20 imo - both are very aggressive. All the overtures about ‘heavy metal cricket’ means it’s probably Gurbaz or Hill as WK and no place for Swindells - his T20 average is 20.88

[CrawlingFox]

2 hours ago, Stadt said:

Kimber & Patel have to play in the T20 imo - both are very aggressive. All the overtures about ‘heavy metal cricket’ means it’s probably Gurbaz or Hill as WK and no place for Swindells - his T20 average is 20.88

I think his career average and strike rate are misleading and he's suffered from being thrown in to open too early.

 

Career average of 20.8 at 112.

 

2021 - 4 innings and 31.6 at 121

2020 - 3 innings and 34 at 123

 

Don't get me wrong he's not pulled up trees and missed most of both campaigns due to injury but in terms of batters only Inglis averaged higher in either season. I think Swindells has found a good niche in the lower Middle order.

 

Incidentally both Patel and Kimber average in the teens and Patel's strike rate is comparable to Swindells. He does look classy at the crease and could play a good accumulating role as perhaps too often last season he batted with a lot of wickets falling around him.

Edited 5 February 2022 by CrawlingFox

[SemperEadem]

6 hours ago, Lako42 said:

Assembled a good squad. 

 

Really hope they get more down there off the back of it. 

Yeah big time.

[Father Ted]

8 hours ago, CrawlingFox said:

T20 side is tricky:

 

Gurbaz

Steel/Welch

Lilley

Ackermann (c)

Hill

Swindells (wk)

Scriven

Mike

Parkinson

Naveen

Davis/Walker

 

Is Steel back in the fold or is Welch fit? I liked Swindells coming in a bit later last season but could see him opening again if the answers to the above two questions are no.

 

I don't really want to see Mike bowling but I do rate his batting where he has good power in this format. But his inclusion has me feeling we're both a batter and a bowler short...

Steel scores too slow in T20 IMO, far better suited to the 50-over format. Welch seems to be fit again, but he wasn’t favoured at all for the T20 last season so it’ll be interesting to see who opens. 
 

Kimber and Patel should feature in the T20 side, both were two of the main positives from the last campaign. Mike is a tough one, bowling too expensive and I’d rather have Kimber in there at 7 for the big hitting over Mike. Young Ahmed can bat a bit too, I’d have him in there with Parkinson. 
 

Id go with; 

 

Gurbaz

Swindells 

Ackermann

Hill

Patel

Kimber 

Scriven 

Ahmed 

Parkinson 

Davis/Walker

Naveen

 

Good options not in that line up too. We know Nixon has his favourites though so don’t be surprised to see Griffiths and Rhodes heavily involved.

 

 

[Walshy5]

T20 is abit of a conundrum in terms of selection. If you don't include Steel then you have to move Swindells to open but he's more affective in the middle. Mike is good with the bat but way too expensive bowling. You could include Scriven to compensate for Mike so we have an extra pace/allrounder but then Kimber would have miss out. Patels form tended to wain at the back end of last season so not to fussed about his involvement. Maybe go horses for courses in terms of when you play more spinners, more seemers or more batters etc but generally speaking I'd like to see something like this:-

Gurbaz

Steel

Lilley

Ackermann

Swindells 

Hill

Kimber

Scriven

Parkinson

Walker

Naveen

 

We seem to have a very large squad!

Edited 6 February 2022 by Walshy5

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

On 05/02/2022 at 09:33, Lako42 said:

Assembled a good squad. 

 

Really hope they get more down there off the back of it. 

Has to be one of the biggest squads in the country. 

[CrawlingFox]

4 hours ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

Has to be one of the biggest squads in the country. 

A fair few of the counties carry big squads though some blur the line between academy and full squad more than others.

 

It does feel a bit like our squad is similar to a newly promoted Premier League team, difficult to always attract top level talent so we sign two or three untested/average players and hope one comes good.

 

Some will go the way of Harry Dearden and not quite be the level we need whilst others may do very well like Callum Parkinson.

 

Shout out for the academy though with Evans, Swindells and Ahmed all looking serious prospects. And Hill, a local lad transforming himself into a really good batter. If we can carry on producing like this (coupled with high class overseas signings) then we may not need to roll the dice on other counties released players as much.

[The People's Hero]

I know this is reckless and we need a lot of luck, a fair wind and a hell of a lot of momentum (and the weather) but I reckon if we do manage to start well, we might be a CC side to watch this year. That attack in division 2 is very very good and varied ... ON PAPER.

 

If it translates to pitch then I back us to get proper result cricket this year. 20 wicket-taking team.

[The People's Hero]

5 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

I know this is reckless and we need a lot of luck, a fair wind and a hell of a lot of momentum (and the weather) but I reckon if we do manage to start well, we might be a CC side to watch this year. That attack in division 2 is very very good and varied ... ON PAPER.

 

If it translates to pitch then I back us to get proper result cricket this year. 20 wicket-taking team.

AND I'M DELIGHTED TO SPONSOR OUR GLORIOUS CAPTAIN.

 

[Tommy Fresh]

4 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

I know this is reckless and we need a lot of luck, a fair wind and a hell of a lot of momentum (and the weather) but I reckon if we do manage to start well, we might be a CC side to watch this year. That attack in division 2 is very very good and varied ... ON PAPER.

 

If it translates to pitch then I back us to get proper result cricket this year. 20 wicket-taking team.

To be fair when we had Abbas I would have backed him to take all 20 by himself, so it's nice to see us have a more complete attack now.

[The People's Hero]

1 minute ago, Tommy Fresh said:

To be fair when we had Abbas I would have backed him to take all 20 by himself, so it's nice to see us have a more complete attack now.

Abbas was superb for us. We have a really excellent history of overseas. I'm 50/50 on these ones this year, but every signing makes sense. With a fair wind, good fitness, enthusiasm etc... I think we're now an attack to be feared.... no longer just see off Chris Wright and then fill your boots.

 

[MaidstoneFox]

8 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

I know this is reckless and we need a lot of luck, a fair wind and a hell of a lot of momentum (and the weather) but I reckon if we do manage to start well, we might be a CC side to watch this year. That attack in division 2 is very very good and varied ... ON PAPER.

 

If it translates to pitch then I back us to get proper result cricket this year. 20 wicket-taking team.

Well I count 28 professionals, though a few only there for the two white ball games. I'm hopeful that the new structure with Claude as DOC will allow for a more organised and strategic approach and indeed better selection, which was more baffling that England's at times last year. If everyone is fit then Hendricks, Mulder, Wright and Davis/Barnes should provide a potent seam attack for April/May/June. There will certainly be a bit of a logjam in the seconds

[CrawlingFox]

22 hours ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Well I count 28 professionals, though a few only there for the two white ball games. I'm hopeful that the new structure with Claude as DOC will allow for a more organised and strategic approach and indeed better selection, which was more baffling that England's at times last year. If everyone is fit then Hendricks, Mulder, Wright and Davis/Barnes should provide a potent seam attack for April/May/June. There will certainly be a bit of a logjam in the seconds

The squad is a bit hefty isn't it haha. I've had a go at separate teams for all 3 formats but we'll need a few more academy lads roped in for the batting in the one day cup (shame Dearden left):

 

CC/T20/RLODC

 

Azad/Steel/Welch

S.Evans/Gurbaz(wk)/Bates(wk)

Rhodes/Lilley/?

Patel/Ackermann/?

Hill/Kimber/?

Mulder/Scriven/?

Swindells(wk)/Mike/Kelley

Hendricks/Davis/Barnes

Ahmed/Parkinson/Bowley

Wright/Walker/Griffiths

Sakande/Naveen/A.Evans

[Lionator]

good news 

[MaidstoneFox]

https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/countycricket/yorkshire_appoint_alistair_maiden_batting_coach.html

 

Looks like our pathway coach is off to the new setup at Yorkshire.

[CrawlingFox]

38 minutes ago, MaidstoneFox said:

https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/countycricket/yorkshire_appoint_alistair_maiden_batting_coach.html

 

Looks like our pathway coach is off to the new setup at Yorkshire.

Given the recent success of Evans and Swindells seems like he could bring on the batters especially pretty well so this looks to be a shame.

 

Fair play to him though, it's a big appointment so hope he does well there and can be part of building somewhere better than the previous regime.

 

Very important for us to get the right replacement to keep those players coming through.

[SemperEadem]

Tom Smith off to Yorkshire also.

[Walshy5]

Whenever we think things might be looking up, something like this always happens! 😥

[Lionator]

This is on spotify too for those interested. Comes across a very grounded young man. Special things await.