Uncapped trio in Guernsey inter-insular squad

Young pace bowlers Charlie Forshaw and Harry Johnson, who both played integral roles in last week’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Europe Qualifier success, have been joined in the group by Guernsey under-15 captain Ed Robinson and while the all-rounder is unlikely to make the final XI on this occasion, the management team are acknowledging his exciting potential by including him in the 13.

‘We know he is someone who will make a lot of progress, he has already made his mark in CI League cricket and he has played for Hampshire U15s, so giving him the opportunity to be around the senior squad is another rung up the ladder for him,’ said Guernsey’s director of cricket Jeremy Frith.

From the squad for the recent ICC tournament, Martin-Dale Bradley is unavailable and Ollie Clapham drops out and while the focus switches from the shorter format back to 50 overs for the annual clash with Jersey, the Sarnians will not change their mentality.

‘You’ve just got to try to do your best whether you are playing Malta, Estonia, Finland, Denmark or Jersey,’ said Frith.

‘Any coach will tell you that you can’t do better than your best and, whatever format of game, we will look to keep improving on the simple things like fielding and running between the wickets, while also being positive in our approach when batting and bowling, and just keep backing each other.

‘Because it’s a longer format, it is down to the batters and the bowlers how to manage the risk, but in a 50-over game you have a bit of time to think, thankfully.’

Frith and the rest of the management team will also take their time to assess the conditions beforehand before settling on the final composition of the side and how the batting order lines up, but he added that he will only look at his own squad rather than worry about the opposition, who have not lost a 50-over inter-insular since 2015.

‘We know they will be a decent side who do the basics very well and will always be competitive – it’s our job to match them or go above them on the day,’ he said of Jersey.

‘Our guys know they are getting better, making progress all the time, and that will take us to a point where we are competitive with Jersey whenever we play them, get us on a level with them and hopefully, eventually, past them in time.

‘We have got the better of them once this season [in the last game of the three match T20I series] and hopefully we can make that twice this weekend.

‘Every bit of confidence and belief you can get from such wins is very valuable and for the last 18 months to two years we have been on an upward trajectory. There have been a few bumps along the way, but the main message is we want to keep improving and getting better.’

Guernsey squad

Ollie Nightingale, Luke Bichard, Josh Butler, Zak Damarell, Ben Ferbrache, Ben Fitchet, Charlie Forshaw, Harry Johnson, Adam Martel, Dame Mullen, Tom Nightingale, Ed Robinson, Matt Stokes.