16-04-2019, 04:53
Wednesday morning will find Worcestershire venturing up the M6 to kick off the 2019 One-Day Cup against Lancashire. Both teams marked the beginning of the County Championship with emphatic victories, and though Lancs have had the weaker one-day form over the last couple of years, they always give the Pears a proper game of white-ball cricket. One way or another, I'd expect this match to tell us a fair bit about Worcestershire's chances of making the knockout stage for the fourth year on the trot.
A glance at the corresponding fixture last season - which saw the Pears snatch an unlikely win in a last-ball thriller - shows plenty of changes to both sides. For the Red Rose, Jordan Clark, Karl Brown and Joe Mennie are all gone, while Liam Livingstone showcases his bench-warming skills over in Jaipur. However, the addition of Glenn Maxwell is a huge threat, while ex-Northants quick Richard Gleeson might get the nod, and there's even the possibility of a rare white-ball showing from Jimmy Anderson. Meanwhile, Worcestershire are doing without Moeen Ali as he continues his stint at Royal Calamity Bangalore, Joe Leach remains on the road to recovery, and Joe Clarke and Travis Head have given way to Riki Wessels and Hamish Rutherford respectively.
I can't see much changing in the line-up from the weekend, beyond some cursory shuffling of the batting order. Josh Tongue might be dropped in favour of introducing the likes of Pat Brown or Dillon Pennington, whose fifty-over performances in 2018 warrant inclusion, but the efforts of Charlie Morris on Saturday and Sunday should guarantee his place.
Probable Worcestershire XI: Wessels, Rutherford, Fell, Mitchell, D'Oliveira, Cox, Whiteley, Barnard, Parnell, Pennington/Brown, Morris
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