As one white ball competition concludes, another one begins as Durham take on Sussex Sharks in the Metro Bank One Day Cup opener at South Northumberland Cricket Club tomorrow starting at 11am.
Durham Head Coach Ryan Campbell has named a 13-player squad for the List A opener which includes a mixture of senior and youth players.
Sam Conners, Emilio Gay, Will Rhodes, Ollie Robinson and Codi Yusuf are all in line to make their Durham List A debuts.
With the Hundred competition commencing this week a number of Durham players won’t be available as Graham Clark, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts (Northern Superchargers), Ben McKinney (Manchester Originals), Nathan Sowter (Oval Invincibles) and Callum Parkinson (Trent Rockets) are on Hundred duty.
This will provide a number of younger Durham players with an opportunity with the likes of Haydon Mustard, James Minto and Luke Robinson being on show throughout August.
Neil Wagner suffered injury against Somerset in the County Championship and has returned home to New Zealand ruling him out of his stint with Durham, while David Bedingham is not contracted to feature for Durham in the Metro Bank One Day Cup.
Bas de Leede and Daniel Hogg aren’t available for selection due to injury and will be monitored by Durham’s Science and Medicine department.
Sussex are missing five players to the Hundred with Tom Alsop, Tymal Mills, James Coles, Jofra Archer and John Simpson on Hundred duty and are one of counties not to be hugely affected by the short format competition.
Squad v Sussex [5 August]
Colin Ackermann, Sam Conners, George Drissell, Emilio Gay, Mitchell Killeen, Alex Lees*, James Minto, Haydon Mustard, Ben Raine, Will Rhodes, Luke Robinson, Ollie Robinson, Codi Yusuf.
Words from Ryan Campbell
The One Day competition probably comes at the perfect time for us, where we can just sit back and take a breath from the County Championship.
I am so excited about our 50 over team, you are going to see youngsters and that is always exciting giving them some opportunities.
And of course you are going to see some of our senior players, because this is a great opportunity for us to put our name into the hat to win a white ball competition.
I am really looking forward to the next three weeks and see how our youngsters go and see if we can take some of our T20 form into the 50 over format.
Opposition Corner
Captain: Jack Carson
2024 Position: Ninth (Group B)
2024 Most Runs: Tom Haines (326)
2024 Most Wickets: Henry Crocombe (10)
Why they can win the competition: Sussex regard the Metro Bank One-Day Cup primarily as a development competition and the focus will again be on giving youngsters opportunities. Many will be better for the experience they had in 2024, even though they only won one game, and if they can make a good start they could make the knockout stages, as they did in 2022 with a similarly inexperienced team.
Player to watch: Henry Crocombe was one of the stars of Sussex’s Vitality Blast campaign with 15 wickets in his nine games and he was their leading wicket-taker in the One-Day Cup last season. With his strong action, the 23-year-old is capable of bowling with serious heat and will relish his likely role as leader of the seam attack.
Young gun: George Thomas has had few opportunities since his winter move from Somerset, but the opening batter offered glimpses of his potential when he broke into the Vitality Blast team. He made his maiden hundred in this competition last year for his former county and a run of games will offer the 21-year-old an opportunity he should relish.
Final thought: Batting coach Grant Flower will be in charge for this competition, and it will be interesting to see his approach. Sussex only won one game last year, but they lost twice by one wicket and were competitive in most. John Simpson, who missed three games last year, will be captain for the tournament which is a welcome development. So is the return to Arundel which stages its first one-day game since 2013 against Kent as part of a four-day festival of cricket.
Match Centre
The Club’s match centre will be in operation for the fixture with live scorecards, statistics & video highlights as they happen. You can watch the game live via Durham’s match centre and Durham Cricket YouTube channel.