Mahela out but Chapple sure Red Rose can bloom this year
HE MAY be without Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene for this season’s T20 Blast but Lancashire Lightning head coach Glen Chapple is in a confident mood.
The Lightning kick off their campaign against Durham Jets at the Riverside today and will have big hitter Jos Buttler available for selection after he missed out on the England Test squad to face South Africa.
But Jayawardene will not be part of the squad after pulling out of his commitment to play for Lancashire last month for personal reasons.
“It was never going to be an easy team to pick. On reflection, at the moment, I’m really happy with the players we have,” Chapple said.
“If we don’t suffer any further losses, I’m pretty happy with the squad.”
Meanwhile Durham have named Paul Coughlin as their captain for the tournament ahead of their opener.
The 24-year-old seamer, from Sunderland, will take over from England veteran Paul Collingwood and admits it will be a massive privilege to lead the side out.
He said: “It’s an honour to captain the club in any format. From growing up, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do.
“It’s still early in my career but that makes it feel more special that they’ve put it to me and asked me if I wanted to do the job for the team.
“It’s great to have Colly still around as well and he can push me in the right direction with any help or advice I need.”
Fresh off their One-Day Cup triumph over Surrey, Notts Outlaws are now fully focused on the shortest format.
The Outlaws, who won by four wickets at Lord’s last weekend, face Yorkshire Vikings at Headingley this evening and with new names in the squad raring to go, Peter Moores is eyeing a fresh start.
“We’d always like to give people longer, but it all comes back around again soon and the T20 is important to us,” said the head coach.
“What’s nice is we had Dan Christian in the dressing room with us on Saturday. Ish Sodhi landed on Sunday, so we’ve got two big players in and it almost feels like a fresh start.
“You don’t judge a season until you finish it. We’re in the middle of it.
“Winning a trophy is a huge success and testament to a lot of hard work, but we’re only halfway through.
“We’ve got silverware and we’ve played good Championship cricket so we’ll get our heads down for what’s to come.”
Elsewhere in the opening round of matches, defending champions Northants Steelbacks will kick off their bid to retain the title against Derbyshire Falcons at the County Ground.
Northants dramatically beat Durham by four wickets at Edgbaston last August as they chased down 153, despite falling to 15-3, to lift the trophy for the second time in four years.
Worcestershire Rapids will start their competition by welcoming Birmingham Bears to New Road and Leicestershire Foxes, who last year propped up the North Division, must wait until Sunday to get going at Lancashire Lightning.