Tymal Mills returns to squad for trip to Canterbury

After a successful break from T20 cricket that brought two four-day wins and saw Sussex climb to second-place in division two of the Specsavers County Championship, the side return to Vitality Blast action on Friday night.

The Sharks travel to Canterbury to take on south group leaders Kent Spitfires. Sussex sit in fourth place in the division having won three of their four games. The team are a point off top-spot with a game in hand over the three sides above them.

Jason Gillespie has named a 14-man squad for tomorrow’s fixture. Fit-again Tymal Mills is added to the group that was selected for Sussex’s previous two matches.

The Sussex Sharks head coach said: “We’re excited to resume our T20 campaign after two really good wins in the Championship.

“We’re off to a solid start in the Vitality Blast but there’s a lot of hard work ahead, beginning with the match against Kent tomorrow night.

“They deserve a lot of respect, but we’ve had a really good team-meeting having done our research and if we play our best I’m sure we’ll be able to compete.

“It’s great to have Tymal back in the squad. We’ll have a look at the conditions when we get to Canterbury and pick our final eleven accordingly.”

The corresponding fixture last season resulted in a five-wicket win for the Sharks.

Sussex Sharks squad

10. Luke Wright (c)

22. Jofra Archer 

18. Will Beer

21. Danny Briggs

42. Tom Bruce 

5. Michael Burgess (wk)

32. Laurie Evans

8. Chris Jordan

1. Rashid Khan

7. Tymal Mills

9. Delray Rawlins

25. Ollie Robinson

28. Phil Salt

96. David Wiese 

Opposition

Kent Spitfires are top of the south group with three wins, a loss and a no-result from their five matches so far.

Three of their matches have been tight affairs, with their wins against Surrey and Hampshire and their defeat to Gloucestershire all being decided by no more than six runs.

Their last match was against Surrey at Canterbury, where the weather denied them the opportunity to set a new world record for the highest successful chase in T20 cricket.

The Spitfires have two bowlers in the top ten wicket-takers in this year’s Blast, with Joe Denly and Carlos Braithwaite both having taken nine wickets.

Braithwaite has now been replaced by Marcus Stoinis as Kent’s overseas player. The Australian all-rounder is set to make his debut tomorrow evening.

Sam Billings is the side’s leading run scorer with 151 runs from his four innings to date.

Match Details

Kent Spitfires v Sussex Sharks in the Vitality Blast gets underway at 7pm on Friday 27th July at The Spitfire Ground, Canterbury.

Follow the match via the Sussex Cricket Match Day Centre, with live scorecards, statistics and text commentary via the @SussexCricket twitter feed.

Ball-by-ball radio commentary will be available online from BBC Sussex.