Hassan Ali misses Warwickshire’s trip to champions Surrey following his late call-up to the Pakistan squad touring Ireland and England this month.
But First Team Coach Mark Robinson has been boosted by the return of Sam Hain who’s in contention to make his season debut at the Oval.
Hain has missed the start of the season for personal reasons but Robinson said he expects the 28-year-old – Bears leading red ball run scorer last summer – to play a part.
He said: “Sam’s back in the squad. Over the years he’s been one of our best performers (47.06 average last year) so it’s a huge boost.
“He’s had to work through a few things behind the scenes, he’s played a couple of Second XI games, testing himself out, and he feels he’s ready to return to First Class Cricket which is great news for us.
“It’s disappointing to lose Hassan; it’s been a bit of a saga. We were expecting him for the start of the season but the Pakistan Cricket Board held a physical training camp at late notice, then the Ireland tour was scheduled a few weeks ago.
“It’s been hard but that’s sport. Hassan has the honour of being in his national squad. He’s on reserve in case of injuries but has to travel and be ready to play. The uncertainty is the difficult part as obviously we want to plan ahead.
“We’ve had it since the start of the season. We’ve had to ride the punches but we’ve shown great resilience, different people have stepped up.
“It’ll take time for him to come to terms with a different ball and conditions. The weather is kinder for him so that’ll help. He is a genuine all-rounder as we saw with his batting against Notts, and an attacking bowler so we’ve got to be clever with our fields and how we use him.
“He’s an exciting cricketer. Several counties were after him, we’re lucky that he chose us.”
Surrey have started the 2024 season strongly with two innings victories (against Hampshire and Kent) coming on the back of two weather-impacted draws.
It’s 12 years since Warwickshire last tasted success at The Oval as a Jeetan Patel-inspired Bears – he took six for 95 in Surrey’s second innings – guided them to a five wicket win.
“The first thing you do when playing a very good team is stand up and win the small battles. That allows you to get a foothold in the game, to start throwing some punches back, and you take it from there.
“The deeper the game goes, the more chance you have of winning. Hopefully we’ll have a great four days.”
Squad
Ed BarnardJacob BethellDanny BriggsMichael Burgess (WK)Alex Davies (C)Sam HainOlly Hannon-DalbyAamir JamalCraig MilesDan MousleyWill RhodesRob Yates
Head-to-Head
This match will be the 171st meeting between these two teams. Surrey have won 64 and Warwickshire 32.
Milestones
Danny Briggs requires one wicket to reach 350 First Class wickets.Craig Miles requires three wickets to reach 350 First Class wickets.Olly Hannon-Dalby requires seven wickets to reach 350 First Class wickets.Olly Hannon-Dalby requires seven wickets to reach 300 First Class wickets for Warwickshire.Will Rhodes requires five wickets to reach 100 First Class wickets.
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. You can also see a ball-by-ball feed and watch highlights of all the action. Supporters can get involved by sending their match day comments and thoughts on X (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.
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