Pre-Match Pack: Leicestershire (H)

Derbyshire have named a 13-player squad for the LV= County Championship fixture against Leicestershire at The Incora County Ground, starting on Thursday (11am). 

Warwickshire fast bowler, Henry Brookes, joins the Club on loan for the next two round of the County Championship, and comes straight into the squad for the Leicestershire fixture.

Having captained the Second XI to a victory over Nottinghamshire, and scoring an impressive half-century against Worcestershire earlier this week, Harry Came is named in the squad and will be pushing for his first Championship appearance of the season.

Having made unbeaten half-centuries in each innings last week against Durham, Luis Reece will be aiming to carry that form into this game. He scored a century against Leicestershire in the final game of the 2022 season at Derby.

Zak Chappell’s home debut last month garnered a five-wicket haul and the tall quick will want to make a similar impression against his first county. Anuj Dal remains sidelined with a side strain.

Derbyshire Squad:

12. Haider Ali
4. Harry Came
10. Luis Reece
29. Brooke Guest (wk)
77. Wayne Madsen
76. Leus du Plooy (c)
7. Matt Lamb
32. Zak Chappell
51. Mark Watt
59. Sam Conners
11. Ben Aitchison
8. Henry Brookes
82. Suranga Lakmal

The Opposition

Leicestershire have made a strong start to the LV= County Championship Division Two season and currentky sit in second place, unbeaten, on 45 points. 

Australia batter, Peter Handscomb, is in fine form, averaging 100 with two half-centuries and one century to his name so far, while Rishi Patel, Lewis Hill and Colin Ackermann have all made telling contributions with the bat.

With the ball, the evergreen Chris Wright leads the way, with 13 dismissals at an average of 23.61 so far.

Pre-Match Talk

Head of Cricket, Mickey Arthur, says Derbyshire must bounce back from their innings defeat to Durham in the LV= County Championship. 

Derbyshire struggled to limit the flow of runs with the ball, as Durham declared on 452-9, but it was Derbyshire’s start with the bat that saw them hand momentum to the hosts at Seat Unique Riverside, falling to 6-4 at one point, before eventually being all out for 165 in the first innings, while they began Day Three on 92-5, after another tough start to the second innings.

A 149-run parternship between Matt Lamb (99) and Luis Reece (66 not out) for the sixth wicket provided some resistence in the second innings, but ultimately Derbyshire could not force Durham to bat again, being bowled out for an innings defeat before tea on Day Three.

Derbyshire have now tasted defeat in two of their opening three games, with a rain-affected draw against Leicestershire accounting for the bulk of their 17 points in Division Two.

Arthur was disappointed by the performance as a whole, but in particular the showing on Day Two, and has said the squad must look to bounce back and kickstart their season with back-to-back home fixtures against Leicestershire and Gloucestershire coming up.

“We 100% lost the game on the second day. The only thing we can take out of this game was the fight on the final day with the partnership between Matthew Lamb and Luis Reece,” he said.

“We can’t concede 400 runs on day one like we did and you can’t be rolled out like we were on day two. You’re never going to come back into any game like that. You’re not going to come back from being six for four. It was really disappointing, I thought it was a disappointing performance.

“We’ve got to be able to bounce back. It’s easy when you’ve got the wind in your sails, but it’s tough when things are not going your way. You make your own luck, so we’ve got to keep going. I said in the dressing room I think there is something missing altogether. I got the feeling that we needed something to kickstart our season. We got a little bit of a spark from Lamb and Reece.”

How to follow

Derbyshire’s LV= County Championship fixture against Leicestershire will be covered live on the club website, through our improved Match Centre, delivered in partnership with Purpose Media.

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