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Having suffered a 72 run defeat by Middlesex on Thursday night, Essex Eagles have named a 14-man squad for the NatWest T20 Blast encounter against Gloucestershire on Saturday evening.

Young fast bowler Sam Cook has been added to the squad after impressing for the Second XI in recent weeks and will be in line for a T20 Blast debut, should he appear.

Head Coach Chris Silverwood admitted that he was bitterly disappointed with the defeat to Middlesex. “We came here knowing that a win would put us in a strong position in the South Group but obviously, those hopes have taken a knock.

“We said we would go hard down the order but on Thursday, it didn’t work. Against Hampshire recently we were excellent but unfortunately, it hasn’t worked against Middlesex, but we’ll keep going.

“There were a couple of positives to take from Thursday’s match. Dan Lawrence was our stand-out bowler against Middlesex and he also did well with the bat and he is emerging as a real strong talent for us. It was also great to see James Foster play the way he did and it was a fantastic innings.

“It can be frustrating with the inconsistency in our performances but what I will say is that we’ve got some good kids in our team who are learning all the time, so you are going to get inconsistencies.

“Obviously, there is plenty of work to be done but at the same time, I think that it is very important that we keep positive and keep pushing towards our goals and keep aiming to win every game we can.”

Essex Eagles squad:

Ryan ten Doeschate (27) Captain
James Foster (7) Wicket-keeper
Mohammad Amir (5)
Ravi Bopara (25)
Varun Chopra (6)
Sam Cook (16)
Matt Dixon (30)
Simon Harmer (11)
Dan Lawrence (28)
Jamie Porter (44)
Callum Taylor (67)
Paul Walter (22)
Adam Wheater (31)
Ashar Zaidi (99)

Essex Eagles continue their NatWest T20 Blast involvement when they meet Hampshire on Friday night at The Cloudfm County Ground with a scheduled start time of 7pm.

The Eagles have made a disappointing start to the competition and a 10 run defeat to a Kevin Pietersen-inspired Surrey team at the Kia Oval on Wednesday left them with their fourth defeat from five matches.

The former England batting star made his return for Surrey and his arrival proved timely as he scored 52; the only half-century of the match and a contribution that proved defining in the final reckoning.

Essex now have the proverbial mountain to climb if they are to figure in the knockout stages of this year’s competition.

Head Coach Chris Silverwood admitted that the latest reverse was particularly disappointing. “It was a match I expected to win and I think we all did at the halfway stage after restricting Surrey to 150 for 9. I thought we bowled well and I expected us to chase their total down bearing in mind that we went in with the extra batter. But it wasn’t to be so yes, it was a disappointing defeat.

“There is some positives to be taken from the game, I thought Mohammad Amir bowled beautifully and showed again what a world-class bowler he is. Paul Walter continues to continue his upward trend of improving and pushing forward. Those are the two bonuses from our point of view which is fantastic.

“But still, there is a lot to work on as well.

“From the batting perspective, I felt we needed to be braver in the first ten overs, we needed to go at it and make sure that we got in front of the game. If you fell behind, it was always going to be difficult to score at ten an over on that wicket and so it proved. We needed to be up with the rate throughout and we weren’t.”

And the Eagles Coach indicated that changes can be expected to the starting line-up.

“There’s going to be opportunities coming up for players because it’s obvious that we cannot afford to carry on as we are,” he insisted. “We’ve lost four games now and we can’t afford to lose any more. So we need to look at where we go from here and make changes to try and turn things around.

“Things have got to improve.”

Essex Eagles squad
Ryan ten Doeschate (27) Captain
James Foster (7) WK
Mohammad Amir (5)
Ravi Bopara (25)
Varun Chopra (6)
Matt Dixon (30)
Simon Harmer (11)
Dan Lawrence (28)
Jamie Porter (44)
Callum Taylor (67)
Paul Walter (22)
Tom Westley (21)
Adam Wheater (31)
Ashar Zaidi (99)

A morning telephone call from the National Selector James Whitaker, an unusually emotional conversation with his dad, and a good luck message from Alastair Cook’s four-year-old daughter.

They have been some of the highlights of a memorable Thursday for Tom Westley, the 28-year-old Essex batsman, who has been chosen to make his England debut in the third Investec Test against South Africa which starts at the Kia Oval one week today.

“I had James Whitaker’s number stored on my ‘phone from previous Lions selections, so when I saw it come up I was hoping for good news – but nothing can prepare you until it happens,” Westley said.

“There was a long pause on the phone – I think he wondered if I was still there. But I was just trying to take it in. This is why you get into cricket, because you want to play for England.

“It’s all just snowballed from there really, lots of calls and congratulations. In that respect it’s been a very humbling day.”

Westley, who is from Cambridge, started playing cricket at the Mildenhall club in Suffolk, then moved to Saffron Walden before signing for Essex, and continued his cricketing education at Durham University.

“I owe a lot to so many people, but my dad has been the most influential person in my career,” he added.

“He was the first person I spoke to after the news came through. He’s a builder, and he’s not known for being very emotional. But he told me he was very proud, and sad he might have to nip around the back of the scaffolding to shed a tear – in a monotone way, obviously.”

One of the first calls Westley received was from Cook – a long-time Essex team-mate, and this season a more regular batting partner, with both playing key roles in the county’s successful return to Division One of the Specsavers County Championship.

“Cooky called me this morning, just to say congratulations, the usual stuff between team-mates – if he could help in any way, he’d be on the end of a phone,” Westley revealed. “He was in the car with his daughter Elsie actually, so she said congratulations to me as well.

“I’ve learned so much from Cooky over the years. One of the big things is his demeanour, not just as a batsman but also as a person. He’s an unbelievable role model, and after seeing him close-up with Essex for so long I’m looking forward to seeing him with England. We’ve had quite a few good partnerships with Essex, so hopefully we can do the same for England.”

Westley has batted himself to the top of the queue of middle order hopefuls with his performances for the England Lions over the last six months, impressing on the winter tour of Sri Lanka and then in scoring a century against the South Africans at Worcester last month.

“I appreciate everything in Test cricket is going to be another step up in intensity, but I can take confidence from having faced the majority of their bowlers a few weeks ago and scored some runs,” he added. “But for me the key is going to be replicating what I’ve been doing with Essex.”

Westley will play in Essex’s NatWest T20 Blast match against Hampshire at the Cloud FM County Ground in Chelmsford on Friday night before switching his focus back to red-ball cricket, ahead of what promises to be a memorable week.

Essex Eagles return to white-ball action on Friday for the sold-out NatWest T20 Blast opener against Surrey at The Cloudfm County Ground.

Chris Silverwood’s men turn their attention to T20 cricket after two stunning wins in the Championship to leave Essex top of the pile.

The Eagles will look to go one step further in the Blast in 2017 after falling at the quarter-final stage last year, and will be bolstered by overseas signing Mohammad Amir alongside the likes of Ashar Zaidi and Ravi Bopara.

Head Coach Silverwood will hope Amir can strengthen a squad already brimming with confidence.

He said: “I believe Amir will prove to be an excellent signing for the Club. He has been with us for a couple of weeks now but adds real firepower to our bowling attack.

“He also complements the group we have assembled and putting him alongside the calibre of player we already have here will stand us in good stead.”

Silverwood is wary of the array of stars Surrey have available to them and added: “Everyone knows Surrey are a good team and they have some very good players in their squad. They always recruit their overseas players well but we are more focussed on what we can do.

“We beat them in the One-Day Cup and in the Championship so we know we are capable of doing that again. If we continue to implement the processes we have been working so hard on all year, we will be fine on Friday.”

Essex Eagles squad:
Ryan ten Doeschate (27) Captain
James Foster (7) WK
Mohammad Amir (5)
Ravi Bopara (25)
Varun Chopra (6)
Matt Dixon (30)
Simon Harmer (11)
Dan Lawrence (28)
Jamie Porter (44)
Callum Taylor (67)
Paul Walter (22)
Adam Wheater (31)
Tom Westley (21)
Ashar Zaidi (99)

There is very limited availability for all other NatWest T20 Blast fixtures so make sure you get your tickets as soon as possible to avoid disappointment! Buy them here or call 01245 254010.

Ashar Zaidi showed he is nicely in tune for Essex’s NatWest T20 Blast campaign by smacking a six second ball over the bowler’s head in a warm-up game this week.

The bars around the Cloudfm County Ground will empty at every one of Essex’s seven home group matches when the pint-sized left-hander strides out to the middle, starting tonight against Surrey.

The crowd-pleasing big-hitter, nicknamed Boom Boom, sounds like a boxer with tickets to sell when he says: “I am feeling quite confident about how hard I’ve been hitting the ball in the nets and in second-team games.

“My feeling is if the ball is there then I’ll back myself to hit it to the boundary, and the maximum option as well.”

Zaidi is box-office gold for Essex, not that they need to talk up the competition: tonight’s opening fixture is already sold out, and there is limited availability for the rest.

Zaidi’s statistics paint a picture of muscular power and skill. Others may have scored more runs, hit more sixes and posted a higher average in last year’s domestic competition. No one, though, bettered his seriously-high strike-rate of 168.83, and that is the measure of success in T20. Sixty-one per cent of his 363 runs came in boundaries, 23 of them clearing the ropes. He averaged more than 40 every time he went to the crease, which isn’t bad for primarily a middle-order batsman.

However, when asked to nominate the innings from 2016 that stood out to him, he went for one that only contained two fours and one six, but set up Essex for a three-run win at Hampshire.

“It was on a tricky wicket and showed how I could do a job,” he said of the comparatively pedestrian 43-ball 47.

“The big innings was the one against Middlesex at Lord’s when we had to win to qualify for the quarter-finals, and I got us over the line.” Left unsaid was that Zaidi smashed 38 off the last nine balls, and took just 24 deliveries to reach an unbeaten 59, his career-best T20 score.

“Sometimes,” he says, “the smaller totals to win a game are just as important. But I was pretty pleased with my efforts last year. Hopefully, I can repeat them this season.”

There was a hint of what may be to come at the end of April when he caned Hampshire for 72 not out from 40 balls in the opening Royal London Cup game. There were just the four sixes that day.

“How I get on in the T20 depends on how much opportunity I get,” says the Pakistani all-rounder, who turns 36 next week. “Will it be 10 overs or will it be four or five? That is why I am preparing myself for anything and everything, and if I’m asked to do a job, then I’ll try and stay until the end.”

Several times last year Zaidi was elevated in the batting order from No7 to four or five, usually to good effect. “The more time you spend out there the more chance you give yourself to build a decent innings. If you get 14 or 15 overs to bat there is the chance you can get 50 or 60 more runs out of it.

“If you are doing a finishing role, that is a completely different job because you know you literally have to tee off from ball one. Or if you’re chasing, you know you’ve got to score, like, 10 an over, or 13 an over, so the mindset is different. But I do prefer going in with plenty of time to myself.”

Last season, Essex flopped badly in the quarter-final against Nottinghamshire. This season, Zaidi has largely been a spectator as Essex have opened a sizeable gap at the top of the Specsavers County Championship, though he played a role with bat and ball in helping the county to the semi-final of the 50-over competition.

He says: “We’ve got to keep ticking along and keep the momentum going. This could be the year for us to lift the Championship – and do the double with the T20.” Boom boom times, indeed.