Gloucestershire's Steve Kirby has been selected to play for England Lions against Australia at Canterbury at the weekend.
The selection for the two-day fixture is reward for Kirby's excellent form this year - he has taken 41 wickets at 20.41 this season and has continued to work hard at his cricket.
Kirby still harbour's ambitions to play for his country and appears to tick all the boxes for international cricket. His pace and aggression are constant threats even on the flattest of pitches and the Yorkshireman continually backs himself regardless of the situation.
Although the side has been selected from players not otherwise engaged, it will be a ideal opportunity for Kirby to test himself against some of the world's best batsman and remind the selectors of his ability.
While it is unlikely, it does present Kirby with a slight chance of making the squad for the Oval; if he were to take five wickets against the Conivcts, I suspect the Selectors would find it very hard indeed to leave him out.
ReplyDeleteI'm told that Kirby won't be a candidate for the Oval because they use a different ball in the Second Division of the Championship. Is this pure fertiliser or is there some truth in it?
ReplyDeleteCertainly, his performance against Somerset showed a lot of guts in an impossible position.
No I think that's correct; the ECB have almost cast-off the second division this year by trialling this new ball.
ReplyDeleteIf it's moving more than the Duke, however, surely there's an even better argument to pick Ramprakash who's scored more runs than anyone against a harder ball to face!