Peter Moores has hailed the virtues of stability as Nottinghamshire seek to carry their strong red-ball form into a new campaign, beginning at Hove this week.
The Nottinghamshire Head Coach has named a 13-man squad for the first LV= Insurance County Championship game of the season, which commences at 11am on Thursday 7 April.
With the Australian domestic season having recently concluded, James Pattinson is expected to be available for selection in next week’s fixture against Glamorgan. Dane Paterson, meanwhile, is hoping to receive clearance to fly to the UK in the coming days.
The line-up contains ten of the eleven men who took to the field for last summer’s curtain-raiser at home to Durham, and Moores feels that consistency has proven fruitful over the past 12 months.
“We had quite a big upheaval in terms of our playing group going into 2019, and we’ve been settling ever since,” he said.
“We’ve got a close group of players now who know each other’s games and the roles they all play in the side.
“Our batting unit got more bonus points than anyone else last year, having found a way to build really competitive scores.
“Their job will be to get into that rhythm and try and create pressure and move us into a winning position – and from there it’s often the job of the bowlers to take us home.
“We played some really good cricket and had some really strong momentum at the end of last summer, so we’ll look to take that into this first game.”
The season-opener heralds a run of four First-Class fixtures in four weeks, with a trip to Durham sandwiched by home contests against Glamorgan and Worcestershire.
The schedule provides a useful framework from which to judge the year’s opening exchanges.
“Considering these opening four games as a block is a nice, clean way to look at the start of the season,” said Moores.
“We’re exclusively playing one format in these first few weeks, so the key by the end of it is to get those results that put you in a decent position.
“In the week since our last pre-season game, we’ve tapered down the amount of work the group has been doing. We’ve put the hard yards in throughout the winter, so now you want to make sure the work the lads do is of real quality rather than of pure volume.”
The 13-man squad includes six homegrown players, with Lyndon James and Joey Evison joining Brett Hutton and Luke Fletcher as seamers with strong roots in the county.
Moores feels the experience the youthful duo have gained in recent seasons will stand them in good stead for the rigours of the domestic season.
“Lyndon cemented that position at five last year, and his bowling is a real bonus for us,” he said.
“He became a really valuable wicket-taker for us in the first half of last season, before the back injury meant he couldn’t bowl towards the end of the campaign.
“Joey’s always a great bloke to have in your team, and he showed in taking a five-fer against Durham in a game that we needed to win that he really steps up in competitive cricket.
“And he’s been around for a while now – it’s three years since he made his debut – so he’s become an established figure to have in your squad.”
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