Mir Hamza in line for debut as squad for Leicestershire curtain-raiser is announced

Pakistan international, Mir Hamza is in line to make his Sussex debut when Leicestershire visit The 1st Central County Ground for the opening round of the Specsavers County Championship season, starting on Friday.

Hamza is part of a 13-man Sussex squad named by head coach Jason Gillespie. Stiaan van Zyl is also included and is in contention to play his first Championship match since May last year after recovering from a knee-injury.

Van Zyl is one of three members of the match day squad to have scored a red-ball century in pre-season; Harry Finch and David Wiese are the others. Ben Brown, Michael Burgess, Phil Salt and Luke Wells have each scored two fifties, while Tom Haines has one.

Among the bowlers, Chris Jordan took six wickets with the red ball during pre-season, including a five-wicket haul against Cardiff MCCU. Abi Sakande and Luke Wells have both taken five.

After announcing his squad, head coach Jason Gillespie said: “There have been some tough decisions to make in naming the squad for the Leicester match, but while this is challenging it’s also exciting to have had so many players putting their hands up to be selected during pre-season.

“Of course, some of the lads are disappointed not to be included, but the thirteen that have been selected deserve to be there.

“It will be another difficult decision come tomorrow morning when we pick the final eleven. We’ll look at conditions and pick the team we think will give us the best chance to be successful.

“We’re really excited for the start of the season and I wish all the boys the very best.”

Squad

Ben Brown*+

Danny Briggs

Michael Burgess

Harry Finch

Tom Haines

Mir Hamza

Chris Jordan

Ollie Robinson

Abi Sakande

Phil Salt

Stiaan van Zyl

Luke Wells

David Wiese

Opposition

After a sixth place finish in division two last year, it has been a winter of change at Grace Road, with Leicestershire losing eight players from their full-time staff, as well as signing four.

Right-arm seamers Will Davis and Chris Wright have arrived from Derbyshire and Warwickshire respectively and all-rounder Arron Lilley has joined from Lancashire. Loughborough University graduate, Hasan Azad has signed his first contract for the Foxes.

Azad impressed on his Leicestershire debut, scoring a maiden-first class century and setting a record second-wicket partnership for the county in first-class cricket with Ateeq Javid during his side’s innings and 220-run win over Loughbrough MCCU earlier this week. Davis took six-wickets in the match.

Head coach, Paul Nixon has named a 13-man squad for the visit to The 1st Central County Ground: Paul Horton*, Colin Ackermann, Hasan Azad, Mark Cosgrove, Will Davis, Harry Dearden, Gavin Griffiths, Lewis Hill+, Ateeq Javid, Arron Lilley, Ben Mike, Tom Taylor, Chris Wright.

Match details

Play is scheduled to begin at 11am on all four days of the match. Tickets for each day’s play will be available to purchase from the Eaton Road entrance only when gates open at 9.30am. Please note online ticket sales for the match are no longer available.

Supporters who are unable to make it to The 1st Central County Ground will be able to watch every ball live accompanied by ball-by-ball commentary from BBC Sussex via the FREE live stream on the Sussex Cricket Match Day Centre.

The Match Day Centre also includes a live scorecard, live statistics and text commentary via the @SussexCCC twitter account.