Ekansh Singh, who signed a rookie contract last July, has disappeared from the list of players. Unless that contract was just for last season's Metro Bank comp?
England U19 Ben Dawkins hasn't signed a rookie contract but is in our Academy. Neither can play for us unless they are under contract but I suppose that it is possible that they both could be signed for the Metro Bank this year too.
Men’s Head Coach Adam Hollioake has named a squad of 13 for Kent’s opening match of the 2025 Rothesay County Championship.
Daniel Bell-Drummond captains a squad that features a fit-again Ben Compton, Zak Crawley, Matt Parkinson and double-centurion vs. Loughborough UCCE, Joey Evison.
South African seamer Keith Dudgeon is included and could make his Kent debut at The County Ground, Northampton.
After a successful pre-season with all the bowlers getting good game time and in good form, there is no need to rush overseas bowler Kashif Ali for this match as he has not had much game time in the last month. He will build up his match fitness in the coming days and will be available for selection in the first home game of the season against Middlesex next week.
2024 Kent Men’s Player of the Year Harry Finch will keep wicket for this match. Chris Benjamin and Ekansh Singh, who played for Durham UCCE against Durham this past week, have not been selected. Jaydn Denly is included after his 125 this week against Loughborough UCCE, and to also provide an additional spin option in Northampton if needed, based on conditions.
George Garrett has recovered from his slight quad injury and will play in Kent Second XI’s four-day match with Nottinghamshire Second XI to build up his match fitness. Corey Flintoff will also continue to get game time for the Second XI next week.
Marcus O’Riordan has been ruled out of the trip to Northampton whilst he recovers from back spasms.
Mikey Cohen is continuing to work through his return-to-bowling schedule after returning to Canterbury this past week. The left-armer fielded for part of Kent’s three-day match with Loughborough UCCE last time out but remains unavailable to bowl competitively for the near future as he continues to work on his fitness after his back injury ruled him out for the entirety of the 2024 season.
Both Joe Denly (arm) and Matt Quinn (hamstring) are carrying what is considered by the Club’s Medical Team as long-term injuries and they will be working closely with both players to get them back to match fitness over at least the next 10 weeks.
Sam Billings & Fred Klaassen are White-Ball Contracted players and are therefore unavailable to play in the Rothesay County Championship. Wes Agar is scheduled to arrive in Canterbury at the end of May, ahead of the start of the Vitality Blast.
Those without a professional or rookie deal are unable to play first-team cricket, as per ECB contractual regulations.
The article above "states Jaydn Denly is included after his 125 this week against Loughborough UCCE, and to also provide an additional spin option in Northampton if needed, based on conditions". Now he might be selected in front of Muyeye as a batter but, if his bowling really is considered a viable second string for this match, then why was he given 5 overs in the last match compared to Parkinson's 28 overs? In the three pre-season matches, his return has been 22.3-1-125-2 and he has only ever bowled 12 overs in FC cricket (1-63).
In a podcast a couple of years ago, Adam Ball said that he felt his development at Kent was held back by being the permanent 12th man (due to the fact that he is a fantastic fielder). Jaydn is a talented lad but the only way he is going to progress, especially as a spinner in all forms of the game, is to play and bowl be that in the 1s or 2s. Not by carrying the drinks. Someone has to do that but I would like to think that we will rotate that job.
The article above "states Jaydn Denly is included after his 125 this week against Loughborough UCCE, and to also provide an additional spin option in Northampton if needed, based on conditions". Now he might be selected in front of Muyeye as a batter but, if his bowling really is considered a viable second string for this match, then why was he given 5 overs in the last match compared to Parkinson's 28 overs? In the three pre-season matches, his return has been 22.3-1-125-2 and he has only ever bowled 12 overs in FC cricket (1-63).
In a podcast a couple of years ago, Adam Ball said that he felt his development at Kent was held back by being the permanent 12th man (due to the fact that he is a fantastic fielder). Jaydn is a talented lad but the only way he is going to progress, especially as a spinner in all forms of the game, is to play and bowl be that in the 1s or 2s. Not by carrying the drinks. Someone has to do that but I would like to think that we will rotate that job.
I suspect Denly will get enough cricket this year . At this time of year , despite the good weather , I’d be tempted to use him and Leaning as the spin options and leave Parkinson out . Unusually for a spinner in English conditions , I’d say Parkinson was overbowled last year
The article above "states Jaydn Denly is included after his 125 this week against Loughborough UCCE, and to also provide an additional spin option in Northampton if needed, based on conditions". Now he might be selected in front of Muyeye as a batter but, if his bowling really is considered a viable second string for this match, then why was he given 5 overs in the last match compared to Parkinson's 28 overs? In the three pre-season matches, his return has been 22.3-1-125-2 and he has only ever bowled 12 overs in FC cricket (1-63).
In a podcast a couple of years ago, Adam Ball said that he felt his development at Kent was held back by being the permanent 12th man (due to the fact that he is a fantastic fielder). Jaydn is a talented lad but the only way he is going to progress, especially as a spinner in all forms of the game, is to play and bowl be that in the 1s or 2s. Not by carrying the drinks. Someone has to do that but I would like to think that we will rotate that job.
I suspect Denly will get enough cricket this year . At this time of year , despite the good weather , I’d be tempted to use him and Leaning as the spin options and leave Parkinson out . Unusually for a spinner in English conditions , I’d say Parkinson was overbowled last year
I just think that Parkinson is a potential wicket taking option whatever the conditions whereas Leaning (3-361 last season off 84 overs) and Jaydn (1-63 off 12 overs) aren't. As for Parkinson being bowled too much, he delivered 413.3 overs last season whereas Derek Underwood, in his 25 year career, bowled 23,297.1 overs so an average of 932 overs a season.
It's easy to chuck the ball to a spinner but to ask a 19 year old such as Jaydn to contain let alone take wickets I fear is putting too big a burden on someone so raw in terms of experience as he's never really been that successful in red ball because he doesn't bowl that much in that form of the game. When he played in the 4-day games against Australia U19s he hardly bowled (8-1-57-1 and 4-1-21-0 in those two games) whereas he was used far more regularly in white ball. We don't have that long a tail either without him with Dudgeon at 8 and Stewart at 9.
The article above "states Jaydn Denly is included after his 125 this week against Loughborough UCCE, and to also provide an additional spin option in Northampton if needed, based on conditions". Now he might be selected in front of Muyeye as a batter but, if his bowling really is considered a viable second string for this match, then why was he given 5 overs in the last match compared to Parkinson's 28 overs? In the three pre-season matches, his return has been 22.3-1-125-2 and he has only ever bowled 12 overs in FC cricket (1-63).
In a podcast a couple of years ago, Adam Ball said that he felt his development at Kent was held back by being the permanent 12th man (due to the fact that he is a fantastic fielder). Jaydn is a talented lad but the only way he is going to progress, especially as a spinner in all forms of the game, is to play and bowl be that in the 1s or 2s. Not by carrying the drinks. Someone has to do that but I would like to think that we will rotate that job.
I suspect Denly will get enough cricket this year . At this time of year , despite the good weather , I’d be tempted to use him and Leaning as the spin options and leave Parkinson out . Unusually for a spinner in English conditions , I’d say Parkinson was overbowled last year
I just think that Parkinson is a potential wicket taking option whatever the conditions whereas Leaning (3-361 last season off 84 overs) and Jaydn (1-63 off 12 overs) aren't. As for Parkinson being bowled too much, he delivered 413.3 overs last season whereas Derek Underwood, in his 25 year career, bowled 23,297.1 overs so an average of 932 overs a season.
It's easy to chuck the ball to a spinner but to ask a 19 year old such as Jaydn to contain let alone take wickets I fear is putting too big a burden on someone so raw in terms of experience as he's never really been that successful in red ball because he doesn't bowl that much in that form of the game. When he played in the 4-day games against Australia U19s he hardly bowled (8-1-57-1 and 4-1-21-0 in those two games) whereas he was used far more regularly in white ball. We don't have that long a tail either without him with Dudgeon at 8 and Stewart at 9.
I suspect Deadly went for far fewer runs and took a lot more wickets ! Fair play on your point about Leaning though .
Comments
Batters:
Daniel Bell-Drummond
Ben Compton
Zak Crawley
Joe Denly
Jack Leaning
Tawanda Muyeye
Ekansh Singh (rookie contract)
Keepers
Chris Benjamin
Sam Billings (white ball)
Harry Finch
Seamers:
Wes Agar (overseas, June-July)
Kashif Ali (overseas, April-May)
Michael Cohen
Keith Dudgeon (overseas, April-May)
Joey Evison
Corey Flintoff (rookie contract)
George Garrett
Nathan Gilchrist
Fred Klaassen (white ball)
Matt Quinn
Tom Rogers (overseas, Vitality Blast)
Jas Singh
Grant Stewart
Spinners:
Jaydn Denly
Marcus O'Riordan
Matt Parkinson
Finch 9 (18)
Crawley 0 (2)
DBD 33 (64)
Muyeye 40 (55)
Leaning 27 (65)
Benjamin 47 (64)
Evison 152* (191)
Denly 115* (147)
Assuming everyone is fit, I imagine Crawley when available will open with Compton, but it won't help us if he keeps getting out for low scores.
Men’s Head Coach Adam Hollioake has named a squad of 13 for Kent’s opening match of the 2025 Rothesay County Championship.
Daniel Bell-Drummond captains a squad that features a fit-again Ben Compton, Zak Crawley, Matt Parkinson and double-centurion vs. Loughborough UCCE, Joey Evison.
South African seamer Keith Dudgeon is included and could make his Kent debut at The County Ground, Northampton.
After a successful pre-season with all the bowlers getting good game time and in good form, there is no need to rush overseas bowler Kashif Ali for this match as he has not had much game time in the last month. He will build up his match fitness in the coming days and will be available for selection in the first home game of the season against Middlesex next week.
2024 Kent Men’s Player of the Year Harry Finch will keep wicket for this match. Chris Benjamin and Ekansh Singh, who played for Durham UCCE against Durham this past week, have not been selected. Jaydn Denly is included after his 125 this week against Loughborough UCCE, and to also provide an additional spin option in Northampton if needed, based on conditions.
George Garrett has recovered from his slight quad injury and will play in Kent Second XI’s four-day match with Nottinghamshire Second XI to build up his match fitness. Corey Flintoff will also continue to get game time for the Second XI next week.
Marcus O’Riordan has been ruled out of the trip to Northampton whilst he recovers from back spasms.
Mikey Cohen is continuing to work through his return-to-bowling schedule after returning to Canterbury this past week. The left-armer fielded for part of Kent’s three-day match with Loughborough UCCE last time out but remains unavailable to bowl competitively for the near future as he continues to work on his fitness after his back injury ruled him out for the entirety of the 2024 season.
Both Joe Denly (arm) and Matt Quinn (hamstring) are carrying what is considered by the Club’s Medical Team as long-term injuries and they will be working closely with both players to get them back to match fitness over at least the next 10 weeks.
Sam Billings & Fred Klaassen are White-Ball Contracted players and are therefore unavailable to play in the Rothesay County Championship. Wes Agar is scheduled to arrive in Canterbury at the end of May, ahead of the start of the Vitality Blast.
Those without a professional or rookie deal are unable to play first-team cricket, as per ECB contractual regulations.
Crawley
Compton
DBD
Muyeye
Leaning
Evison
Finch
Dudgeon
Stewart
Parkinson
Gilchrist
The article above "states Jaydn Denly is included after his 125 this week against Loughborough UCCE, and to also provide an additional spin option in Northampton if needed, based on conditions". Now he might be selected in front of Muyeye as a batter but, if his bowling really is considered a viable second string for this match, then why was he given 5 overs in the last match compared to Parkinson's 28 overs? In the three pre-season matches, his return has been 22.3-1-125-2 and he has only ever bowled 12 overs in FC cricket (1-63).
In a podcast a couple of years ago, Adam Ball said that he felt his development at Kent was held back by being the permanent 12th man (due to the fact that he is a fantastic fielder). Jaydn is a talented lad but the only way he is going to progress, especially as a spinner in all forms of the game, is to play and bowl be that in the 1s or 2s. Not by carrying the drinks. Someone has to do that but I would like to think that we will rotate that job.
Quinn after a year out has another long term injury.
It's easy to chuck the ball to a spinner but to ask a 19 year old such as Jaydn to contain let alone take wickets I fear is putting too big a burden on someone so raw in terms of experience as he's never really been that successful in red ball because he doesn't bowl that much in that form of the game. When he played in the 4-day games against Australia U19s he hardly bowled (8-1-57-1 and 4-1-21-0 in those two games) whereas he was used far more regularly in white ball. We don't have that long a tail either without him with Dudgeon at 8 and Stewart at 9.
lunchtime prediction - 81/2
73-5