Surrey drop Afzaal
Usman Afzaal has paid the price for Surrey Lions’ two opening Friends Provident t20 defeats with the loss of his place in the squad for this weekend’s matches.
Afzaal was by no means the only Surrey batsman to fail in home defeats at the hands of Gloucestershire Gladiators and Essex Eagles, but his omission is the only change to the squad from the most recent encounter.
The Lions face Somerset Sabres at Taunton today and a Hampshire Royals side expected to feature Kevin Pietersen tomorrow at the Rose Bowl.
Surrey professional cricket manager Chris Adams said: “It has undoubtedly been a disappointing start to the FP t20, but two games in two days gives us a great chance to put this week behind us and move forward.
Usman Afzaal played in Surrey's two opening Friends Provident t20 defeats, but will not feature in this weekend's games
“This is a very fast moving competition and, with 14 games left to play, things can change very quickly.”
Surrey squad: Rory Hamilton-Brown (captain), Steven Davies (wicketkeeper), Mark Ramprakash, Andrew Symonds, Younus Khan, Matthew Spriegel, Chris Schofield, Andre Nel, Chris Tremlett, Jade Dernbach, Stewart Walters, Gareth Batty, Tim Linley.
Somerset Sabres began their campaign with defeat to last year’s winners Sussex Sharks, but bounced back with victory against Middlesex Panthers on Wednesday thanks to the exploits of Kieron Pollard.
Pollard, who followed up figures of 3-26 with a match-winning 89 from 45 balls at Lord's, is set to make his home debut today.
Somerset captain Marcus Trescothick, whose side beat Hampshire yesterday evening, is excited about Twenty20 at Taunton for the first time this year.
“Anything can happen in Twenty20 cricket as we saw on Wednesday night, but we believe we have the right personnel to be successful on a regular basis,” he said.
“There should be a cracking atmosphere at Taunton and we are really looking forward to the Surrey game.”
Somerset squad: Marcus Trescothick (captain), Craig Kieswetter (wicketkeeper), James Hildreth, Jos Buttler, Keiron Pollard, Peter Trego, Zander de Bruyn, Ben Phillips, Alfonso Thomas, Murali Kartik, Max Waller, Mark Turner.
