Captain Moeen Ali and overseas signing Dwayne Bravo are part of the Worcestershire Rapids squad for tomorrow afternoon’s Vitality Blast derby with Birmingham Bears at a sold-out New Road (2.30pm start).
England all-rounder Moeen and Bravo are available after missing the opening four games, with the West Indies star set for his Rapids debut.
They are part of a 14 strong squad announced by the Rapids to face their local rivals.
Rapids Head Coach, Alex Gidman, said: “Really looking forward to having Mo and Dwayne join us and start playing.
“They are two world-class players who clearly make us a better team.”
Moeen and Bravo, plus Dillon Pennington and Gareth Roderick, are added to the players in action against Durham on Thursday, minus Yorkshire all-rounder Matthew Waite whose current two-week loan deal has come to an end,
Gidman said: “His loan agreement came to an end last night. Obviously, we don’t know what the next few weeks look like yet, but, at the moment, it has come to an end, and that’s it for now.”
The Rapids will be seeking their first win of the campaign against the Bears, but Gidman believes qualification is still feasible.
He said: “We’ve had four very tough away games, four of our hardest matches, but our aim was to get a couple of wins, and we are disappointed not to have any points on the board.
“However, there are ten games left and plenty of games for us to go and win to put ourselves back in the hunt, and clearly, we will be aiming to start that process tomorrow.
“Everyone aims for the top spot, but realistically, with some of the strengths of other teams in our division, you are looking to qualify in any way, shape or form.
“Sometimes that is six wins, sometimes seven wins and, with ten games left to play, those sorts of numbers are still within our grasp.
“We will look to start that process tomorrow and get some momentum.
“Especially without Mo and Dwayne, we are extremely inexperienced, and we’ve had a couple of players literally starting their T20 careers with us this year.
“There have been some tough learning curves, but we’ve competed extremely well, and we are desperate to turn things into a win and get our campaign running and going forward.”
Worcestershire Rapids (from):
ED POLLOCK
BRETT D’OLIVEIRA
MOEEN ALI *
COLIN MUNRO
JACK HAYNES
BEN COX +
ED BARNARD
JAKE LIBBY
DWAYNE BRAVO
DILLON PENNINGTON
PAT BROWN
CHARLIE MORRIS
JOSH BAKER
GARETH RODERICK
