Squad for Lancashire

Brian Halford has revealed in the Mail today that the squad remains unchanged for the next championship game, away to Lancashire at Old Trafford. Giles resisting the temptation to chop and change a squad which performed well in bursts against Yorkshire and continues to threaten big things.

That makes the squad

Ian Westwood (Captain)
Varun Chopra
Ian Bell
Jonathan Trott
Jim Troughton
Tim Ambrose (wk)
Rikki Clarke
Chris Woakes
Neil Carter
Ant Botha
Naqaash Tahir
Imran Tahir
Andrew Miller

Rikki Clarke still has a stomach strain that will prevent him from bowling, but the suggestion is that bringing him into the team purely to strengthen the batting will be considered. Incidentally I am quite pleased to find a picture of him for this story that makes him look quite dashing; he doesn't always photograph well young Rikki. Almost certainly the man to make way would be Miller, who went wicketless against Yorkshire. Possibly with Trott picking up a bit more of the bowling duties, where he can perform a useful role in holding up an end with his dibbly-dobblers.

Lancashire meanwhile may welcome back Jimmy Anderson into their team, probably for one of his only appearances of the season. Their other bowlers are likely to be from Sajid Mahmood, Glen Chapple, Darren Powell (former WI) & Tom Smith (with Kyle Hogg and Oliver Newby also in their squad). Spinner Gary Keedy broke his collarbone, which is a big blow and they are likely to opt for Simon Kerrigan to replace him.

The batting line-up is likely to be Stephen Moore, Gareth Cross (wk), Ashwell Prince, Steven Croft, Karl Brown and Luke Procter.

So with all respect on paper their batting looks a little thin, but the pace line-up looks formidable. With Bell and Trott set to play Warwickshire look to have better batting, but Lancashire look the more likely to take 20 wickets, particularly if Warwickshire play only 4 bowlers.

Match starts on Thursday.