Not to dismiss the talent that Shaikh is, and a number of others in that squad. But if you’re not first choice for your county, you shouldn’t be playing for the lions (let alone the full England team).
So many under 19’s there, I’m assuming in part due to the fact that the ECB can only take so many players away from the counties right now.

I think this season is the perfect representation of what a few of us have been saying for some time.
The club is definitely tilted towards white ball. The depth of players in those competitions is clear to see. We have a 1 day team with 5 batsmen who would arguably be playing T20 at another county. So whilst the results in white ball have been good so far, it is definitely at the expense of the championship team.

We’re a bit thin on the ground for bowlers, which is in part due to the fact our recruitment has concentrated on white ball specialists who either aren’t effective in the red ball or who don’t play it at all. Which has left a heavy burden on the rest of the bowlers who are unfortunately for the most part an aging and injury prone group. Plus the well known overseas issues we’ve had. Which all has resulted in the number of injuries we’ve seen.

The batting is an interesting one. I think the averages are a bit misleading, not just for us but across the entire country. There’s a number of top order players who’ve got highly exaggerated averages because they scored huge runs in the first 2 rounds playing with the kookaburra on slow pitches. Other batsmen didn’t get a chance.
Apart from one absolute shocker, we’ve been less prone to collapse, and have set up winning positions the bowlers couldn’t take advantage of. We are still prone to being 40 or 50 for 3 though.
The backend of the season decides whether it’s a successful season, staying up and winning a white ball trophy can be considered success.
Just escaping relegation and not winning anything is a failure. Simply because you can’t build a team like this for 3 years and not win anything, especially when you’ve decided not to strengthen a championship winning side in order to concentrate on T20.

It was going to be a real 50:50 shootout if we played, and you never know sometimes with DLS you can get a stinker of a score for no apparent reason. So in the end, taking the point and remaining undefeated isn’t too bad.

Net run rate will be huge if both teams don’t lose again. But both teams still have to play Yorkshire, they have Leicestershire and we have Notts.

Fisher probably suits Surrey because he can be rested and rotated better.
But a seamer of that calibre should be high on the list.

Who’s reporting Benjamin to Kent?

I’ll never turn down the signing of a promising player. But I’m not sure, another fringe batsman trying to break into the side is the best use of resources.
Yes, Rhodes is leaving. But with the likes of Benjamin, Shaikh, Wylie, Khan and Smith, already part of the squad and not playing in the championship, I think I’d prefer the club to concentrate on top quality bowling options.
Seen reports today that Surrey will be signing Matt Fisher from Yorkshire. Not sure why we wouldn’t pursue a player like they.

Agree about Bristol.
It’s a ground that had lots of potential but the thought and planning seems to be very disconnected and haphazard. Lost the charm it once had.

Not sure this pitch is what either side expected.
Definitely seems like it’s one you need to get yourself in on. Then you can accelerate.

Yes just heard Charlesworth compared to Gower.
Pull the other one 😂

Is it a coaches choice to have Benjamin keeping or is Burgess’ finger still causing issues?

I think Surrey in this competition are an example of youth thrown to the wolves. The entire bowling lineup is kids. No senior player to rely on, the same way our bowlers have OHD or Lintott, or the batted have Barnard and Burgess. So they’re relied upon instantly and in the highest pressure moments, with no protection.
Whereas the likes of Shaikh, Smith, Ali, can be shielded somewhat.
It does seem to be a choice too, they didn’t pick Virdi or Matt Dunn in the last couple of matches.

Sibleys innings really goes to show that in 50 over cricket, if you have someone to bat around, who stays near 100 strike rate, you always stand a chance.
He was let down by the likes of Foakes, Steel, Burns who didn’t deliver.
We’ve seen Barnard do that for us previously. Burgess did it for Benjamin today.
But as someone mentioned earlier, it does require an ability to manipulate the field and pick up 1’s and 2’s without getting bogged down.

Serious money being spent in Durham then.

Interesting how the Cricketer act more coy (or simply don’t know where Gay is going), but CricInfo just come out and say it.

According to reports the club are in a tussle with Durham to acquire Emiliano Gay’s signature.
Seen as a replacement for Rhodes leaving.
He’s announced he’s leaving Northants, but similarly to Rhodes, not where he’s going.

Their abilities are starting to be recognised beyond Warwickshire fans and dedicated county cricket journalists.

Let’s just hope they get handled properly, I’m also wondering what this means for their red ball careers.
Mousley has already started travelling off to franchise tournaments. He looks like he’d be very happy to be white ball only, but Bethell shows a lot of promise in red ball and I’d hate to see him pigeonholed too early.

Dan and Jacob have been superb.
Not sure the best thing for their long term success is to throw them into a set up in turmoil, underperforming, with no coach, against the world champions and biggest rivals.

Get a coach in, let him assess the current squad, retire a few players, start afresh against the West Indies in October.

Just not worth the risk. I’d hate to see such good players, and great lads, have their confidence knocked and get an unfair reputation early if it went wrong because it wasn’t planned out and thought through properly.

Just had a look at the Surrey team that played today.
A very out of balance team.
Strong batting, full of names, 3 England capped players in Sibley, Burns and Foakes, plus first team regulars Steel and Patel. Not all renowned at white ball, but players you’d expect to be more than good enough for the mixed bowling you can get in this competition.
But their bowling is almost entirely kids and part timers.
I wonder if they’ll be allowed any players back for Friday.

It’s Durham is it. I just assumed Yorkshire.

Durham surprises me, wonder where he fits in there, wouldn’t be guaranteed a place in the XI unless someone leaves.
Lees
Jones
Borthwick
Bedingham
Robinson

Is a strong top 5.

For me, and my point was more about reliability and consistency, Yates is very feast or famine. You’re never quite sure what you’re going to get. Which is the reliability bit, when he comes off he’s superb, but there’s often little rhyme or reason to when he’ll come off.
Perhaps form was the wrong word to use, because actually the way he scores his runs, and this might be to do with opening, in the past he has tended to get a huge score, then not much else for a while.
He doesn’t often get those battling 20’s and 30’s in red ball.
Similarly in white ball, often it’s single figures or 40+, there’s little in between.

In his last 10 matches, he’s had 11 innings. Out 10 times. Exactly 230 runs scored, averaging 23. So whilst a lot of those are t20, it does support the point that it’s feast or famine as he’s had 4 innings where he’s achieved a notable score for that format, but in the other 7 it’s 3 ducks, 2, 4, 7 and 15.

And perhaps the broken nature of his appearances is why this year it seems worse, because there are bigger gaps caused by injury and illness.

But I thought I would give an explanation of where I was coming from in terms of viewing Yates’ reliability, and how perhaps the 5 senior batters in the ODC aren’t as reliable or consistent a line up as perhaps one might think.

Excellent work by Rhodes and Smith to break the back of that.

That we struggled doesn’t surprise me. We were due one like that. We in theory have 5 senior batters, but you can’t expect Barnard and Burgess to score runs every time.
So who is there who should be able to be relied upon, well you’ve got Rhodes who did the job today.
But then Benjamin is so out of form, he can’t be relied upon and I’d rather have Theo Wylie.
But also, when was the last time Yates scored any proper runs? Seems to have been out of form for a while now.

Shouldn’t be relying on the likes of Shaikh and Smith. They shouldn’t have that pressure on them.

Lose 2 early wickets in Barnard and Wylie.

Hopefully this low total, gives Shaikh an opportunity to get himself in and play his own game without worrying about the run rate.