Durham XII squad to face Middlesex – Collingwood, Stoneman, Clark, Borthwick, Richardson, Muchall, Pringle, Hastings, Harrison, Rushworth, Onions, Weighell.
Middlesex XIII squad to face Durham – Franklin, Compton, Dexter, Eskinazi, Harris, Malan, Murtagh, Rayner, Robson, Roland-Jones, Sandhu, Simpson, Stirling.
Durham coach Jon Lewis has drafted youngster James Weighell into his squad for the first time on the eve of the LV County Championship clash against Middlesex.
Durham will be hoping to make ground on second-placed Middlesex in the league table, with Weighell on standby to make his first class debut at the Emirates Durham ICG.
It is a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the 21-year-old, Middlesbrough-born seamer and middle order batsman, who was released from Durham’s academy last year, but has bounced back from adversity to earn his call-up to Lewis’ squad.
The Durham coach told www.durhamccc.co.uk “James fully deserves his elevation into our 12-man squad for what is a crucial game in the season.
“James has been playing consistently well in the seconds and he deserves everything that comes to him. It is always difficult when you drop out of professional cricket to then come back into it and compete, but James has done that, done very well and it is the consistency he has shown which has earnt him a place in the first team squad.
“I’m delighted to include him in our squad. He was at our academy and doing well, but injuries restricted his progress and he was omitted. James spent last winter in Australia playing cricket and this year has been performing well for Northumberland and his club, Stokesley. When the opportunities have come along he has taken them and he has performed.”
Lewis sees a similarity in Weighell’s progress to that of the leading first class wicket taker in the country in his Durham team-mate Chris Rushworth.
Lewis said: “Obviously James has a long, long way to go to achieve the kind of levels of performance Chris has put in, but there is a link between the two because Chris was also released by us. He spent a while out of the professional game, but came back stronger and better. It worked for Chris and he is a perfect example to any young player who faces adversity that there is a way back into the game.
“It is encouraging to know that there are still different paths to becoming a cricketer and that there are many different ways to skin a cat. Chris and James have shown that. The development of a cricketer is not always a straight graph.
“Young players in all sports get knock backs and it is how you respond to those that counts. Hopefully James can continue the good progress he has made this season.”
With Yorkshire holding a commanding lead in the league table, Middlesex are heading the rest of the pack in second place.
Lewis said: “We have not done well against the leading teams this season as we lost twice to Yorkshire and we also went down to Warwickshire. We are determined to finish as high up as we can this season in the county championship and a victory over Middlesex would give a great chance of improving our position. We have three homes matches left out of four so as many wins as we can in those games is vital.
“We know Middlesex are a very strong outfit so the players face a real battle on their hands over the four days, but we have shown at our best we are capable of beating anybody in the country.”
Last meeting: May 2-5, 2015: Middlesex (463; Robson 178 & 89; Hastings 5-24, Rushworth 5-38) beat Durham (294; Jennings 98 & 71 all out; Harris 9-34) by 187 runs.
Points – Middlesex 23, Durham 4.
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