Surrey squad to face Bangladesh

That's not a title I'll write very often - this weekend Surrey have the privilege of hosting the Bangladesh side as they play their first warmup match ahead of the test series against England which begins at Lords at the end of the month.

Chris Adams has taken the opportunity, rightly in my view, to give some of the youngsters who have been performing for the Second XI a chance in what will be a full first class match. The squad for the game starting on Sunday is as follows, the team selection is my own work!:

Arun Harinath
Laurie Evans
Rory Hamilton-Brown
Usman Afzaal
Tom Lancefield
Matt Spriegel
Gary Wilson
Stuart Meaker
Matthew Dunn
Simon King
Tom Jewell

12th Man: Chris Schofield

It isn't the strongest looking side with Afzaal being the only man in the batting order with any first class experience to speak of, and for that matter the bowling is extremely raw as well, but if we can't try out new players in a match like this then when can we? Evans and Lancefield have been scoring plenty of runs for the Second XI and deserve a start, Spriegel should be returned to the middle order where I think he's always looked more comfortable, and for the umpteenth time, he should bowl more overs.

We are unfortunately back in the Gary Wilson era. A tally of 213 runs in 13 first class innings so far (and most of them against weak opposition) is indicative of his ability and without wanting to be too harsh on the bloke, I have barely seen a scrap of ability from him. I keep expecting him to prove me wrong because the management persist with him, but I just do not see it myself. I hope I am wrong.

Matthew Dunn went to the Under-19 World Cup with England so is a very bright prospect and it'll be good to see how he gets on. You never know, Meaker, Dunn and Jewell could form a completely homegrown pace attack for Surrey in the not-too-distant future.

I would fully expect that side to be beaten by a Bangladesh side that has yet to be named, but will surely have its fair share of quality players. But this will be a good test for them, and you never know, it might provide one or two of them with the springboard they needed to go on to bigger and better things.