Who are the players to watch? Who’s in the squad? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What is the fixture list? Your questions answered
Head coach: Stuart Law
Captain: Peter Handscomb
Overseas players: Peter Handscomb (Australia)
Players in:
Players out: Dan Lincoln (released), Miguel Cummins (Kolpak)
Fixture list: April 8 – Somerset (h); April 15 – Hampshire (a); April 22 – Surrey (h); April 29 – Somerset (a); May 6 – Gloucestershire (h); May 13 – Hampshire (h); May 20 – Surrey (a); May 27 – Leicestershire (a); July 5 – Gloucestershire (a); July 11 – Leicestershire (h)
Remind me what happened last year?
As the County Championship returns following its enforced break, Middlesex find themselves in a competitive group alongside four counties who, when the plan for 2020 was initially mapped out, were Division One teams.
Stuart Law’s charges, meanwhile, have spent the last 18 months waiting to put right a desperately poor 2019 campaign, when only Worcestershire and Leicestershire finished beneath them on the two-tier ladder.
Since then, much has changed. Stevie Eskinazi captained in the Bob Willis Trophy, with Dawid Malan departing for Yorkshire the previous winter and skipper-in-waiting Peter Handscomb forced to delay his arrival until the start of this season.
The Australian’s arrival will beef up a batting line-up that fared better in the shortened 2020 campaign than it did the previous summer, but it was still missing an experienced figure of authority.
Middlesex will be hoping to see the best of Nick Gubbins, left, and Thilan Walallawita
What’s happened over the winter?
Allrounder James Harris will have his workload multiplied, having taken over from Worcestershire’s Daryl Mitchell as chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association.
The Welsh seamer has a difficult act to follow, given all that Mitchell put into the role. At various stages, he played a fundamental part in discussions around the County Partnership Agreement, The Hundred and the domestic game’s response to the pandemic.
Harris, previously a PCA vice-chair and his county’s player representative, saw off competition from two other candidates to become the 15th chairman since the organisation was set up in 1967.
The news also sees him link up with Middlesex’s former chief operating officer, Rob Lynch, who is now the PCA’s chief executive.
Meanwhile, Andrew Cornish, the former Somerset CEO, has joined Middlesex as chief of staff. He spent the winter advising the club on developing Middlesex’s next four-year strategy.
Seven current players also extended existing deals with the county over the winter. Tom Helm, Ethan Bamber, Luke Hollman, Max Holden, Thilan Walallawita, Joe Cracknell and Martin Andersson have all signed on the dotted line in recent months.
Lord’s has been open as a vaccination centre since early January. And Middlesex are due to return to HQ this season, having adopted Radlett as their on-field home in 2020.
Who’s arrived and who’s left?
West Indian seamer Miguel Cummins, who chimed in with 13 wickets in three games last year, has had his Kolpak status discontinued and has joined Kent as an overseas player.
In the main, the bulk of Middlesex’s hopes coming into 2021 rest on a youthful group of local talent, with several debuts handed out in 2020 suggesting plenty of promise.
“In most of the selections this year, 50 per cent of first team places went to homegrown boys,” Rory Coutts, the club’s head of youth cricket, told The Cricketer.“ It’s exciting for what the next few years could be.”
Hollman and Cracknell, both of whom have come through the same youth system at North Middlesex CC, starred in last year’s Blast campaign, with Hollman’s all-round abilities likely also to lend themselves to the longer format.
Young bowler Blake Cullen has been publicly touted by Mike Atherton as one to watch for the future, while Atherton’s son Josh de Caires signed his first deal with the county in August. Another batsman, Jack Davies, made his debut in the same month.
Spinner Thilan Walallawita impressed and was ever-present in the red-ball side, alongside allrounder Martin Andersson, whose stock is on the rise. Wicketkeeper Robbie White, now 25, came within a run of a maiden hundred, while there was also a new contract for 22-year-old Ethan Bamber.
Then there is the established core: Eskinazi, Gubbins, Sam Robson, John Simpson, Tom Helm, James Harris, Steven Finn and Nathan Sowter are soon to have Handscomb added into the mix. Toby Roland-Jones missed last season with a shoulder problem.
Who will be the key men in 2020?
Nick Gubbins: Such a fine player at his best, Gubbins looked somewhere closer to that level in 2020 accumulating 350 runs – the most among his dressing room by some distance. His tournament peaked with 192 in a terrific victory against Surrey, though he was forced to miss a game after coming into contact with a positive tester.
Beyond him, Max Holden also enjoyed an encouraging spell; he scored more runs in averaging 30 than he had done in the entirety of the 2019 campaign. Still a work in progress at 23, this was much more like it from the talented left-hander, who added a maiden T20 Blast century for good measure.
Peter Handscomb: Middlesex’s new captain will have a crucial role to play in the club’s middle order, while also having to get to grips with his new charges once he arrives from Australia. He has previous county experience with Gloucestershire and Durham.
Tim Murtagh: With the ball, Middlesex were once again indebted to the former Ireland international last year, who added 25 scalps at 12.72 apiece and sits 16th on the club’s all-time wicket-taking list, moving within nine of John Price immediately above him.
With eight consecutive rounds of red-ball cricket at the start of the season, he’s unlikely to play in all of them, but at 39 years of age he remains as potent a threat as any on the circuit.
One to watch?
Luke Hollman: The former England Under-19 allrounder enjoyed a fine start to his first team career in 2020, impressing with the bat and with his leg-spin in the T20 Blast.
Having come through the county’s youth ranks, Hollman, 20, earned his chance after dominating in the Middlesex Premier League through his teenage years. Behind Nathan Sowter, he and fellow youngster Thilan Walallawita are the next spinners in line, so may find themselves afforded greater opportunities in four-day cricket as the season wears on.
What can we expect from this team this season?
Much will depend on whether a batting line-up featuring Gubbins, Holden, Handscomb and Sam Robson can fire as Middlesex will need them to. Should they come good, there won’t be many more potent seam attacks than theirs, starring Murtagh, Helm, Harris, Finn and Roland-Jones.
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