Preview: Cheshire v Warwickshire, National County

Ethan Brookes believes he took a “massive step forward” as a player in last year’s Royal London Cup campaign and is looking to do the same again in this year’s tournament.

Brookes is in a strong Warwickshire squad to face Cheshire in a 50-over warm-up at Chester Boughton Hall tomorrow before meeting Gloucestershire in the RLC opener at Cheltenham on Tuesday

The 21-year-old has happy recent memories of Chester Boughton Hall. He heads into the RLC on the back of some explosive batting form for the 2nd XI with two of his last three four-day games having brought scores of 92 and 174 against Lancashire at Chester and 137 and 81 against Kent at Tonbridge.

Now he is looking forward to more first-team opportunities, starting at Chester where overseas signing Krunal Pandya will make his first appearance in a Bears shirt.

“The Royal London Cup was a massive step forward for me last year,” Brookes said. “I really enjoyed the role bowling my overs and batting seven or eight and dealing with the different situations that you come into. I would like to think I learned a lot from that, whether it’s going in with 30 overs to go and playing that situation or trying to win games at the back end.

“Hopefully my role in the team will be similar this year because I learned so much during the games last year. With the bat there is actually so much time. At the start of the campaign I was going in and wanting to play shots straight away, but in the latter games I learned that often the thing to do is build an innings and then capitalise at the end.

“I did a lot of technical work on my batting with Ian Westwood in the winter and have found something extra. So I have got a good foundation with my batting and feel in a really good place at the moment. Fingers crossed I can take it into the Royal London Cup.

“With the ball, I hope I’ll bowl my full ten in all the games with a variety of slower balls and building  pressure on the batter. At York last year, when I had to bowl the last over, I learned so much from that even though it didn’t go to plan.

“This year I’m ready to hit the ground running and hopefully will have a good campaign and keep banging on the door for a first team place in all formats.”

Despite the loss of 11 players to The Hundred, the Bears squad to face Cheshire is a strong one, including India international Pandya, fit-again Liam Norwell and the returning-to-form Rob Yates.

Among the senior players, youngsters are in contention, including Hamza Shaikh, Manraj Johal, Kai Smith and wicketkeeper George Maddy who has signed a rookie contract for the tournament. Maddy is likely to keep wicket while Michael Burgess plays as a specialist batter.

Squad

Will Rhodes (C)
Ethan Brookes
Michael Burgess
Manraj Johal
Matt Lamb
George Maddy
Craig Miles
Liam Norwell
Krunal Pandya
Hamza Shaikh 
Kai Smith
Dom Sibley
Rob Yates

Match Information

This fixture will 50 overs per side, starting at 11am. Innings break will be around 2.15pm and scheduled close at 6pm.

Tickets for this match are priced at £10 adults and U18s go free. Limited parking will be available at £5 per car. Fans can buy tickets in advance online here or you can pay on the gate, subject to availability.

There will be limited fixed seating and visitors are advised to bring your own chair. There will be food outlets at the ground and a barbecue on the day, while bars will be located in the marquee, upstairs in the clubhouse (limited times) and a bottle bar around the perimeter of the ground.

For more information, please visit cheshireccc.org.uk.