Rehman Steps Up To Face Notts

06 Aug 2012

Abdur Rehman will make his eagerly-awaited Somerset debut in the important LV=County Championship clash with Nottinghamshire at Taunton, starting tomorrow.

With the second placed visitors holding a 12-point advantage over Somerset after 11 fixtures, a home win would put Marcus Trescothick and his team in serious contention to claim the famous pennant for the first time.

With four of the club’s last five games at Taunton, Director of Cricket Brian Rose remains optimistic of a sustained challenge and is keeping fingers crossed for a spell of dry weather to suit Pakistan left-arm spinner Rehman.

The forecast for the Notts game is showers and Brian admits that recent rain has made it difficult to prepare the type of track the newcomer would like.

He told this website: “I feel sorry for our groundstaff because the weather has made life so tough for them.

“We have contemplated playing two spinners against Notts, but it may well be that conditions are still damp and will favour seam more.

“The great thing about having someone like Rehman is that world class spinner can take wickets on any surface, especially when it comes to bowling out the tail.

“I expect him to get runs as well as wickets for us because he is a very useful lower order batsman and it will be good to have a left-hander going in around number eight,”

Somerset are 20 points behind Warwickshire and Brian admits they will need to string at least a couple of four-day wins together to stand a realistic chance of overhauling the First Division leaders.

With Craig Kieswetter and Nick Compton absent through England Lions duty, Chris Jones is set to bat at three and Lewis Gregory at six against Notts, who are themselves without Samit Patel and James Taylor because of international call-ups.

Craig Meschede is still under treatment for a finger injury and Somerset have named left-arm spinner Jack Leach in a squad of 12 following his Championship debut against Lancashire in the drawn match at Liverpool.

Somerset (from) M.Trescothick (capt), A,Suppiah, C.Jones, J.Hildreth, J.Buttler (wkt), L.Gregory, P.Trego, A.Rehman, A.Thomas, S.Kirby, G.Hussain, J.Leach.

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