Matt Maynard has named a 13-man squad to travel to Northampton, with new signing James Harris amongst two changes from the 13 players selected to face Sussex last week.
Harris, who first played for Glamorgan in 2007, will join the squad in Northampton to start his two week loan spell, while Timm van der Gugten has been rested as part of his workload management during a busy block of eight games in eight successive weeks.
Joe Cooke replaces Tom Cullen, with Cooke hitting a century against Lancashire in the 2nd XI clash in Liverpool that started on Monday.
Last time out against Sussex, the Welsh county came up against an irrepressible Ollie Robinson, as the likely future England seamer took 13 wickets, and nine in the second innings, as Sussex cruised to an eight-wicket victory despite twin centuries from Kiran Carlson.
Carlson became the 22nd Glamorgan player to record the feat, and the first Welsh player to do it since 2005. David Lloyd and Callum Taylor also scored contrasting half-centuries across the match, and Matt Maynard admitted that despite the result, there were ‘a lot more positives than negatives in the game.’
In the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy fixture at Northampton, Michael Hogan took his 600th first-class wicket, Marchant de Lange hit Glamorgan’s fastest ever first-class century, and Callum Taylor smashed a memorable debut century.
After the ninth wicket fell, with Taylor 27 off 46, he took 79 off his next 48 balls on his way to 106 from just 94 balls in one of the innings of the tournament. With 11 fours and 6 sixes, Taylor made an immediate impact, and became just the fourth Glamorgan player to score a century on first-class debut.
View from the camp - Callum Taylor:
“It was disappointing to finish last week with a loss after the effort that went in. There were a lot of positives to come from that game. We put a really good shift in with the bat in the second innings and there were some stand out performances, especially by Kiran and Hoges.
“It was great to have to have some time in the middle. I haven’t had much in my first two innings this season with things not going to plan, but it felt good to stick at it and play an innings like that where it’s about grinding away.
“The way Kiran batted paved the way for me to play the way I did. He was being really positive, and my game plan was to stick in as long as I could. Being able to do that was a big confidence boost for me and hopefully I can take that into the game this week.
“Last year I made by debut at Northamptonshire and it was obviously very memorable but it meant nothing in the end because we didn’t win the game. Hopefully this year we can put in a good all-round performance. It’s a nice ground to play at, a good cricket wicket and hopefully we can get in the contest and come back to Wales with a win on the board.”
Injury Update:
Timm van der Gugten has muscle tightness and is being rested as workload management. Jamie McIlroy will be out for another 6-to-8 weeks, following confirmation from Matt Maynard that he had fractured a lower rib. Ruaidhri Smith is still out, recovering from a hamstring injury.
Head-2-Head - click HERE to read.
Northants, Last Time Out:
Northamptonshire lost to Lancashire in Round 2 up at Emirates Old Trafford, as the hosts took a 206-run victory.
Tom Taylor, formerly of Leicestershire, and previous-Lancashire man Simon Kerrigan both took five wickets in the match, with Luke Proctor scoring his side’s only half-century in the match with a fourth-innings 93 from 294 balls not enough to prevent defeat.
How to watch:
This match is being played behind-closed-doors, but the match will be live-streamed by our friends at Northamptonshire CCC and shared to the Glamorgan website.
The game will be covered on our Twitter feed, with updates, highlights, and reports throughout the game.