Where does KP fit in to the Surrey side?

What a whirlwind, it seems that Kevin Pietersen will slot straight into the matchday squad for tomorrow's game with Worcestershire, and with Steven Davies being called up for England duty and therefore unavailable (huge congratulations to him by the way!), I think KP will be named as the only new face in the otherwise unchanged squad from the weekend.

I think he might just squeeze into the starting XI, so what is going to be the order?  I think I'd go with something along the lines of:

Hamilton-Brown
Roy
Pietersen
Ramprakash
Walters
Wilson
Spriegel
Batty
Tremlett
Dernbach
Meaker

The games we've won this season have been won (largely) on the back of rapid starts from Hamilton-Brown and Davies, so in his absence I think we'd be wise to stick our other big six hitter up top, and that man is Jason Roy.  Lots of pressure on a young man, but he's got bags of talent, it might just bring the best out of him - and if it does, watch out Worcestershire.

Pietersen-Ramprakash at numbers three and four is the stuff of my dreams (sometimes...), Walters is in good form and I've always preferred him lower down the order personally.  I still worry that Spriegel lacks the power to be a really effective number seven but he got runs quickly on Sunday so he gets another chance.  He'll also have to bowl a few more overs than he did vs Somerset, either that or RHB and KP will have to have a twirl.

The age old (well, month old) Cheetham or Meaker debate rumbles on, it really is much of a muchness, both can be effective, both can be expensive, to pluck a name out of the hat, I'll go with Meaker for tomorrow.  Tremlett and Dernbach pick themselves despite having poor days on Sunday.

The Worcestershire squad is as follows: Moeen Ali, Vikram Solanki, Alexei Kervezee, Jack Manuel, Darryl Mitchell, James Cameron, Shaaiq Choudhry, Gareth Andrew, Ben Cox, Jack Shantry, Alan Richardson and Chris Russell.

We're well aware of the talents of Moeen, Solanki and Kervezee having been on the receiving end of high quality hundreds from the three of them in the Championship this season, and Cameron was impressive in the match earlier in August too.  Jack Manuel scored a few runs in the recent England Under-19 ODI series too. In the bowling department, Jack Shantry is a talented young player and Richardson is a talented old player, but they're missing Shakib al Hasan who is injured - a big bonus for us, and KP too given his gremlins against left arm spin!

Losing Davies is a huge blow to us, given how well his partnership with RHB has developed but in adding KP we are adding on of the world's best batsmen (albeit in terrible nick).  Our strength unquestionably lies in the batting so I'm backing to boys to bat first and post a big total, we might just need it if Alexei Kervezee gets going.  Whatever happens tomorrow, it might turn into a bit of a circus, but it should be fun nonetheless!