County Championship Preview: Lancashire
Lancashire finished 2nd Last Year can they go one better this year.
The Runners-Up last year had a good shot only losing once in the whole campaign but the 6 draws to Surrey’s 5 and not as many bonus points hurt them finishing 25 points behind Surrey and only 1 ahead of Hampshire.
With a Full-strength side they have one of the best Bowling Attacks of any domestic side in the world lead by the evergreen James Anderson but England Commitments means he only plays the first block of games usually but after the Ashes there is no more Test Cricket in the Summer so he should be available for the last block as well pending ECB approval.
The rest of their Attack is also a mouth-watering prospect with Saqib Mahmood back from injury and the spinners of Matt Parkinson and Tom Hartley. The importing of Kiwi Will Williams through his dual-citizenship from Canterbury in New Zealand and the continued growth of Tom Bailey means that even when Jimmy is with England they still have one of the best Domestic Attacks in the country.
The Dual Overseas Signings of Daryl Mitchell and Colin de Grandhomme backed up with the ever-present Overseas of Dane Vilas adds a more Medium Pace difficult to get away element as well as some powerful Lower-Middle Order Batting to bolster the Good line-up they have with former England Player Keaton Jennings having scored the most runs for them last season and Young hopeful Josh Bohannon present as an Opener and a Number 3.
There is also White-Ball gun Phil Salt who keeps ambitions and a solid base in First-Class cricket and will most likely keep when available.
There will be lots of rotation throughout the season with Jimmy and Saqib more likely to get England calls and the non-stop nature of the start of the season leading to fatigue.
They start the season at Home to defending Champions Surrey
Predicted Line-up for first block:
Luke Wells
Keaton Jennings
Josh Bohannon
Steven Croft
Dane Vilas
George Bell (WK)
Colin De Grandhomme
Tom Bailey
Saqib Mahmood
Jimmy Anderson
Matt Parkinson
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