Preview: Warwickshire v Essex, County Championship (2024)

Warwickshire have been dealt an injury blow ahead of their final home game of the season with news that pace bowler Michael Booth has a side strain. Booth – who’s taken 24 wickets this season – will m

briggford

2024-09-16T14:41:38.000Z

Warwickshire have been dealt an injury blow ahead of their final home game of the season with news that pace bowler Michael Booth has a side strain.

Booth – who’s taken 24 wickets this season – will miss the visit of fourth-placed Essex as Warwickshire look to sign off their Edgbaston campaign on a high.

Fellow seamer Che Simmons has also been ruled out for the rest of the season with a back injury, while Kiwi Michael Rae has returned to New Zealand.

Bears have moved to sign Leicestershire bowler Roman Walker on an emergency loan as cover for the remaining two Vitality County Championship games.

Allrounder Dan Mousley was only released from the England T20 camp on Monday (16 Sept) and a late decision will be made on his match readiness.

“Boothy has done well for us this season,” said First Team Coach Mark Robinson, “so it’s disappointing he’ll miss the season run-in.

Report: Warwickshire v Kent, County Championship - Image 3

“With Che also ruled out for several weeks our squad is stretched so Roman is here as back-up should anyone else go down. The loan market has strict criteria: you can’t loan from the same division or take anyone who’s played more than two games, so we’re limited.

“Dan (Mousley) hasn’t had any time off or played any red ball for a few weeks so we’ll make a decision on him. We don’t think he’ll be quite ready, and it may make more sense to let him train and put his hat into the ring for the Notts game.”

Will Rhodes is just 46 runs short of 1,000 for the campaign and Olly Hannon-Dalby needs four more wickets to reach 50 red ball scalps for the third consecutive season.

And Robinson said he wants those personal motivations to help his side dig deep to pull off back-to-back home wins.

He added: “Players around the country face the same challenge: there are lots of tired bodies and minds. It’s a long season.

“It’s up to us to finish well. What you do at the end of the season you take into the winter and gives you a bit of momentum.

“Essex are a team we’ve had success over, we’ve enjoyed a few wins in recent seasons, and we want to repeat that.”

Squad

BarnardBriggsBurgessDaviesHainHannon-DalbyLintottMilesMousleyRhodesRushworthShaikhYates

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 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 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.