Mark Robinson believes the eve of the LV= Insurance County Championship season is the "best part of the year".
The First Team Coach, who is entering his third season leading the Bears, takes his side to Somerset on Thursday looking to start on the front foot.
With a winter that involved a pre-season tour to Cape Town and young players earning franchise opportunities, the Bears are ready. That’s even after a month that showed March was England's wettest in 40 years.
“You’re always excited and I’ve been in this game a long time,” said the 56-year-old. “The eve of the season is the best part of the year as everything is in front of you.
“We’ve managed to get a day and a half outside in the last few days and Gary (Barwell) and his staff have done brilliantly for us. We’ve got overs into the bowlers and time in the middle for the batters, which follows the day’s play we squeezed in against Worcestershire last week.
“We had a good trip in South Africa, but like a lot of teams are a little bit light. Nevertheless, we’re in a good place and the boys can’t wait to get to Taunton.”
Warwickshire are taking a 13-man squad down the M5, with three players pushing for a Bears debut.
Hassan Ali, Ed Barnard and Chris Rushworth are all in the travelling party having trained the last few days, whilst Liam Norwell misses out with a back complaint.
“Chris Rushworth has come back well from his calf injury, but Liam Norwell has a back issue, he’s missing out as we have to be careful with him. Injuries are part of the game, but with the recruitment, we’ve done we’ve given ourselves options, especially on the bowling front.
“Chris Woakes didn’t bowl a ball for us in any form of cricket last year and that hurt us, but we’re hopeful he’ll play in the second game against Kent.
“Looking at the squad available we know we’ve got some exciting batting talent, with the likes of Rob Yates and Dan Mousley who are homegrown, Chris Benjamin, Jacob Bethell and Ethan Brookes in the wings. We’ve tried to create room for those guys to play.
“With the ball, our attack has been boosted by the new arrivals as well as the signing of Ed Barnard who will fulfil the all-rounder role we’ve missed since Tim Bresnan.
“There’s plenty of competition for places and that’s a good thing ahead of a long season. We’re all excited to get going and pursue another trophy to bring back to Edgbaston.”
Squad
Will Rhodes (c)Hassan AliEd BarnardJacob BethellChris BenjaminHenry BrookesMichael BurgessAlex DaviesSam HainOlly Hannon-DalbyDan MousleyChris RushworthRob Yates
How to Follow
Members and supporters can follow the match live in our Match Centre at edgbaston.com, which will include a free to watch Live Stream, with BBC commentary, and a live text commentary. Supporters can get involved by sending their match day comments and thoughts on Twitter via @WarwickshireCCC and we’ll publish the best ones on our live text commentary in the Match Centre. Supporters can also watch the Live Stream and get instant push notifications of all wickets, innings and match results via the Edgbaston app, which is free to download on iOS and Android. Match updates will also be available across the Club’s social media accounts, simply search for @WarwickshireCCC.
_s6bZ9Ri.png?clxf=t_general_medium)
%20(1).png?clxf=t_general_medium)
.png?clxf=t_general_medium)
_Q3P0zzz.png?clxf=t_general_medium)
