Captain Chris Read is backing Nottinghamshire’s new-look Twenty20 Cup opening partnership of Ali Brown and Alex Hales to produce plenty of fireworks in the tournament.

The Outlaws begin their campaign with a home match against Durham Dynamos and with Graeme Swann on England duty and Will Jefferson being used further down the order, the experience of Ali Brown will combine with the youth of Hales in what Read believes could be a winning combination.

He said: “In the past we’ve used Swanny at the top of the order but without being disrespectful to him, he’s an all-rounder who was given the freedom to attack while Ali is an out-and-out batsman.

“His record over the years has shown how much damage he can do and hopefully he will be able to turn a few games in our favour.

“Alex has also got the potential to be just as explosive and that gives us the possibility of getting our innings off to a good start.

“We’ve got slightly different personnel to call upon this year. Last year Chris Cairns was in the middle order to provide power and experience and we were able to call upon three spin options in Swann, Rob Ferley and Samit Patel.

“Spin is absolutely key in Twenty20 and Samit and Jason Brown will have key roles to perform.”

The match at Trent Bridge is Notts’ only home game before the tournament is put on hold for the ICC World Twenty20, but Read expects a run of home fixtures in June to offer a chance to finish the group stages strongly.

He added: “Clearly you want to win as many home games as possible and we have got quite a tough starting run of matches.

“But if we get through those we will then finish with four home matches in a week, which hopefully will mean we can build up some momentum at an important time.”

Team to face Durham: Ali Brown, Alex Hales, Samit Patel, Adam Voges, Will Jefferson, Chris Read, Paul Franks, Mark Ealham, Darren Pattinson, Luke Fletcher, Jason Brown.