Surrey look to break Guildford hoodoo

Surrey will be looking to win at Guildford in the County Championship for the first time since 2002 when they take on reigning Champions Warwickshire at Woodbridge Road tomorrow.

A draw against Middlesex in 2003 brought an end to 8 consecutive years where we won the 4 day game at Guildford, and we haven’t won there since. It was 11 years ago in July when an unbeaten 124 from Ian Ward led his side to victory over Yorkshire by 6 wickets, and with relegation a possibility for both us and Warwickshire this season, this week’s game couldn’t be any bigger.

Here is our squad for tomorrow’s game:

Vikram Solanki (C)

Rory Burns

Arun Harinath

Ricky Ponting

Zander de Bruyn

Steve Davies

Gary Wilson

Stuart Meaker

Jon Lewis

Chris Tremlett

Gary Keedy

Tim Linley

As you can see there is no Gareth Batty in the squad for this game and Vikram Solanki will once again captain the side. Batty has a side injury and by the sounds of how he was speaking on commentary yesterday, he could be missing for a while, with Churchy confirming on Twitter that he is likely to be out for 4-6 weeks. That is a massive blow for us after already losing Graeme Smith to injury earlier this season, but it’s not just Batty’s leadership skills that will be missed, his off spin his so key to our success, especially as pitch’s take more spin further along in the season.

So the reigns are passed over to Solanki for the time being and he doesn’t lack experience in the role, as he was Worcestershire captain from 2005 to 2010. However, last night’s demoralising defeat to Essex in the YB40 highlighted some pointers that he may not be up to the job anymore. Bowling Stuart Meaker’s 8 over allocation before 30 overs were up and leaving Zander de Bruyn and Tom Jewell to bowl towards the end of the innings was a massive mistake and ultimately allowed the hosts to get a score well above par. I personally would have given the role to Ricky Ponting, but after hearing his interview on talkSPORT this morning, he is happy just turning up an focussing on his own game, rather than having the captaincy on his shoulders.

Ponting will be looking to continue with his good batting form from Derby on a traditionally good pitch to bat on at Guildford, even though it has been slightly more favourable to the bowlers in recent times. Arun Harinath played one of his better innings for us last week and he will continue at the top of the order alongside Rory Burns, who has had a lean couple of games and will be looking to improve on his golden duck he picked up against Lancashire at this ground last season.

Zander de Bruyn has once again been named in the squad, despite obviously lacking in form but probably more importantly in confidence. He has a good record at Guildford with 2 half centuries from 3 innings, but sadly I can’t see him discovering the superb form he showed in 2011. I want nothing more than to see him score good runs because he was one of the better players on the County Circuit when we signed him, and also there are no other all-round options until Ansari turns up. I’ve said this all season but he should bat at 7 if he plays, with Wilson at 3, Solanki 5 and Davies 6. But, it is unlikely that Adams will go down that route and will continue with Zander at 5.

With regards to the bowlers, it is a blow that Dernbach is once again unavailable. He has been in good touch with the ball in this format this season and it is rather surprising that England haven’t let him go after his very poor performance in the second ODI against New Zealand. Gary Keedy will play as the sole spinner, and the seam attack will be made up of 3 of Tremlett, Lewis, Linley and Meaker. Considering that our batting line up will be shortened with Batty out of the side, I think Lewis should get the nod ahead of Linley. The Viscount has worked hard recently but hasn’t exactly grabbed his opportunity with both hands, so I believe Lewis should play alongside Trem and Meaks.

As stated at the beginning of this blog, this is a massive game for both sides. Warwickshire have only won one game this season to our none, and currently sit 6^th in Division One, just 11 points ahead of us. That means that a victory this week would propel us above them and Somerset into 6^th place, which would make things look a bit rosier and install some much needed belief into the dressing room. It might be a good time to play them as well as Chris Woakes is with England, but Boyd Rankin and Keith Barker have both been named in their squad meaning their bowling still looks relatively strong.

A good start is an absolute must tomorrow, because if we allow Warwickshire to get on top, they have the ability to hurt a side when they are down. Hopefully we can have a successful first day and force home a victory over the next 4, with the weather set fair for the whole week.