County Championship Preview: Somerset
Somerset can either be Amazing or Terrible but what will they be this year?
Somerset are a team which constantly goes through the motions. They can either dominate or collapse, There is no in-between for them. They couldn’t find enough consistency with the Bat last year with only Young captain Tom Abell having an average near 50.
They had Matt Renshaw last year pulling them along but he has left as an Overseas. They look bowler heavy again with the Overseas of Australian Peter Siddle and Kiwi Matt Henry but the additions of Tom Kohler-Cadmore from Yorkshire and Sean Dickson from Durham should sore up the batting order. There is a question mark over how much Starlet Tom Banton wants to play Red Ball Cricket but with his White Ball career suffering with some lean years there should be a fight to stick at it with the Red Ball.
Abell averaged 51 last year with only young Middle-Order Batter George Bartlett coming close with an average of 41 with other youngster James Rew looking to take another step forward. Dickson slots in as an Opener replacing Overseas Imam-Ul-Haq next to Lammonby. They have had the tail-wagging to prevent embarrassing performances for several years and are still left in the void from Trescothick retiring at the end of 2019.
Taunton has been known as Ciderabad on account of it being the English ground with the most amount of turn but the Spin cabinet looks a lot barer as players like Dom Bess left to be first choice instead of competing with Jack Leach. This has lead to when Leach is now with England they don’t have a Front Line Spinner only the effervescent Roelof Van Der Merwe to fill in.
This leaves stalwart Lewis Gregory in the firing line as the Top-Order average more with plenty of Young talent and the Overseas Seamers can’t be dropped, Craig Overton eats County sides but can’t crack tests.
Predicted Line-Up:
Tom Lammonby
Sean Dickson
Tom Abell
George Bartlett
Lewis Goldsworthy
James Rew (WK)
Lewis Gregory
Craig Overton
Roelof Van Der Merwe
Matt Henry
Peter Siddle
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