Unchanged squad named to face Essex

An unchanged 13-man squad will face Essex at The 1st Central County Ground this weekend as Sussex's Bob Willis Trophy campaign continues.

Ben Brown's side enjoyed a fantastic start to the competition with a win against Hampshire in the opening fixture, but will be hoping to bounce back after suffering a disappointing defeat at Kent last weekend.

Ollie Robinson missed that match after being recalled to England's bio-secure training bubble, and he is unavailable again this week, while Laurie Evans has extended his loan deal with Surrey for their Bob Willis Trophy match against Hampshire.

Sussex squad to face Essex:

Ben Brown (c) (wk)

Jack Carson

Tom Clark

Mitchell Claydon

Henry Crocombe

Harry Finch

George Garton

Tom Haines

Stuart Meaker

Delray Rawlins

Phil Salt

Will Sheffield

Aaron Thomason

There were some positives to take from the trip to Canterbury, including Brown's superb first-innings 98 and Harry Finch passing 2,000 first-class runs with an impressive 67 off 98 balls, but Jason Gillespie knows Sussex must improve when Essex come to Hove. 

The head coach said: "We were very disappointed with our performance in Canterbury. We know we can play better than that but we just didn't implement our 'Plan A' well enough.

"Our batsmen had a lot of starts, and did the hard work, but we didn't capitalise on that. With the ball, we did not hit the top of off stump anywhere near enough. Our lines and lengths weren't quite there.

"I thought our attitude in the field was superb, but overall we didn't perform to the best of our ability last weekend. We know that and we will have to improve this weekend.

"We've got a great opportunity this weekend against the county champions in Essex to put things right. It will be great experience for the side and we're looking forward to the match."

The opposition

Essex, who were last season's county champions, have enjoyed a fantastic start to the Bob Willis Trophy with back-to-back wins against Kent and Surrey. 

Mercurial off-spinner, Simon Harmer has been Essex's leading man so far this summer with 20 wickets to his name already - the most in the competition - while Sir Alistair Cook is their leading run-scorer with 158 to his name. 

It was Harmer who powered Essex to victory over Surrey at The Cloudfm County ground last weekend with impressive match figures of 14-131, after Adam Wheater and Sam Cook secured their side a thrilling two-wicket win against Kent in the season opener. 

Follow the action LIVE

Despite matches in the Bob Willis Trophy being played behind closed doors, we are still determined to bring Sussex supporters as close to the action as possible.

Play is set to get underway from 11am on Saturday 15 August, and as well as our usual coverage across social media, fans will be able to watch every ball live via our new and improved Match Day Centre.

The stream will also be synchronised with BBC Sussex radio commentary, and the new Match Day Centre has been streamlined to give supporters the best possible online experience.