England seamers Jake Ball and Stuart Broad are poised to boost the Nottinghamshire attack for their first ever day-night Specsavers County Championship match at Trent Bridge.
The pace duo have been released to play by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in the eagerly-awaited table-topping clash with Kent, starting at 2pm on Monday 26 June.
Ball has not appeared for Nottinghamshire since the Royal London One-Day Cup game with Lancashire on May 14 and has not played a four-day match since lining up against Sussex in late April.
Broad has missed two recent County Championship matches against Derbyshire and Gloucestershire, but was permitted to play in the Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final victory at Somerset.
The Kent game is part of a maiden round of County Championship floodlit matches, all of which will feature the Dukes pink ball, being used for the first time in senior competitive matches in England.
“To get Jake back is great and he will be excited to be back playing Championship cricket too, especially with it being the first day-night four-day game at Trent Bridge, and with the pink ball,” said Head Coach Peter Moores.
“Whenever you get international players back, you know they are impact players, who in four-day matches can accelerate the game, which is what you need to win matches.
“Bally, Patto (James Pattinson) and Broady can all open games up when there is a lull or it’s stagnating with one brilliant spell. That gives us extra firepower against Kent.”
Other England stars to play in the day-night fixtures are Yorkshire’s Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, Durham’s Ben Stokes and Mark Wood, Essex’s Alastair Cook and Worcestershire’s Mooen Ali, while Lancashire’s Jimmy Anderson hopes to return from a groin injury.
Andrew Strauss, the ECB’s director of England cricket, said: “The day-night round in the Specsavers County Championship was arranged partly to allow our England players the opportunity to gain some relevant experience ahead of the day-night Test at Edgbaston.
“But we also think it’s a concept that will boost the profile of the Championship, and hopefully the availability of so many of our England players to play for their counties will help.”
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