Lancs field young guns (7 June 1997)

7 Jun 1997

Lancs field young guns

Lancashire Evening Telegraph

LANCASHIRE are set to field one of their youngest ever batting line-ups as they aim to bounce back from their championship disaster and stay top of the Axa Life Sunday League at Taunton tomorrow. Jason Gallian's hand injury leaves Lancashire without their regular top three, with Mike Atherton and John Crawley at Edgbaston. And Wasim Akram is still ruled out with his persistent shoulder problem.

So Lancashire have called up England under 19s captain Andy Flintoff and 21 year old Mark Harvey to join Paddy McKeown in a rookie top order.

McKeown is set to open with skipper Mike Watkinson with Flintoff at three and Harvey hoping for better luck than in his Sunday debut against Northants at Old Trafford two weeks ago, when he did not get a bat.

It's a tough task for the young guns as Gallian has been in superb form with 54 not out against Notts and then his first two Sunday centuries in the last two victories over Northants and Leicester. Lancashire will be looking for revenge on Somerset after their two day humiliation in the championship.

And after being knocked out of the Benson and Hedges Cup at the group stage for the first time since 1989, the Sunday League and NatWest Trophy are now their only realistic chances of silverware this season.

Coach Dav Whatmore said: "It would be nice to leave every ground this season with a win. And it would be much easier to lift out confidence for next week's championship game against Kent back at Old Trafford if we come away from Taunton with a smile on our faces.

"We are bound to miss Jason Gallian because he has been batting through the innings on Sundays and the rest of the guys have been working around him. But the players are so confident in this form of the game that they just don't feel they can lose."

Lancashire: Watkinson, McKeown, Flintoff, Fairbrother, Lloyd, Harvey, Austin, Hegg, Yates, Chapple, Martin.

Source :: Lancashire Evening Telegraph (https://www.reednews.co.uk/let/)