The Glamorgan Selectors have named a 13-man squad for the fourth red-ball game of the season as we travel to Headingley to face Yorkshire in the Vitality County Championship.
The Welsh County had a bye last week, providing the squad with an opportunity for two intra-squad T20 games which were hotly contested between the Probables and Possibles. This gave the squad, selectors, and coaches valuable T20 clarity before the start of the Vitality Blast in a month's time.
Following three draws over the opening Vitality County Championship rounds, Glamorgan have secured valuable points and will be team will be aiming for outright victories in this next important month, which features four championship games.
Seamers Timm van der Gugten and Harry Podmore remain unavailable due to injury, while Jamie McIlroy has recovered well from the shoulder injury that kept him out of the games against Derbyshire and Northamptonshire.
Eddie Byrom is in the squad after recovering from his shoulder injury. Dan Douthwaite is rested for this game, and Asa Tribe and Ben Kellaway are unavailable due to university commitments. Tom Bevan and Will Smale are included in the squad for the first time this season.
Headingley proved to be batter-friendly last week, with both the hosts and Derbyshire scoring 400-plus runs in their first innings of the game.
View from the Camp - Grant Bradburn
“After a bye week, our squad is well-rested and eagerly anticipating this next important month of Championship fixtures.
We have played some excellent cricket in the first three rounds, and although we are not comfortable with accepting draws, the team’s intent will be to consistently put ourselves into outright contention towards the end of matches.
While injuries and university commitments will impact some selections, we are very pleased to reward performance by including two more outstanding young players, Will Smale and Tom Bevan, in our squad this week at Headingley.”
Head-to-head – Yorkshire vs Glamorgan
Glamorgan’s match at Headingley last summer was a thrilling contest with Marnus Labuschagne scoring an unbeaten 170 and Michael Neser recording a hat-trick. After rain and bad light on the third evening, Glamorgan had 96 overs in which to bowl Yorkshire out for a second time, and in a gripping finale it looked like the Welsh county would win as the ninth wicket fell in the penultimate over. But despite a ring of nine close catchers, Jordan Thompson fended off the last six balls from Neser as a great game ended in a draw.
The Welsh County had also held the upper hand on their previous visit to Headingley in 2021, as they drew their match with Yorkshire having set the White Rose a notional target of 379 from 76 overs after snow had seen the loss of play on the third day. Glamorgan’s strong position after their second innings was the result of an unbroken fifth wicket stand of 212 in 69.5 overs between Billy Root and Chris Cooke, who each scored individual hundreds.
How to watch
A live stream of the fixture will be provided by our friends at Yorkshire, with commentary from Nick Webb and the BBC Wales team. You can follow along and see the highlights of the fixture across the Glamorgan social media channels.