Cumbria make the trip to Bridgnorth for Sunday’s opening fixture in the NCCA One Day Trophy to play Shropshire, finalists in 2025.
Last year the two sides met in the Twenty20 Group stages when Cumbria travelled to Telford and won both games.
They have not met in the 50 over Trophy since 2021 at Netherfield, when rain ruined the match.
The two sides have never met in the Championship. Shropshire currently lead the Trophy head-to-head 5-4, while four games had no result.
Cumbria’s team includes eight of those who figured in the last match of last season.
New additions are Tom Fraine and Calum Rowe, both anticipated to make their county debuts, while county regular Nico Watt returns to the side.
Ben Walkden will be making his 40th appearance for the county yet the announced XI features six players with even more National Counties games behind them, proving the amount of experience selected by Cumbria.
Only three players remain in the Shropshire chosen XI from last year’s matches against Cumbria, similarly three remain from the 2021 XI at Netherfield.
In absence of captain Charlie Home, injured in pre-season, Tom Fell leads a strong young, yet experienced, Shropshire side which includes both their winter recruits, Joe Johnson (previously with Bedfordshire) and Roman Walker (after being released by Leicestershire).
Johnson scored a 100 on his debut in a pre-season friendly last Sunday, while Walker scored 64 as both retired not out.
Fell (over 150 games for Worcestershire), Ben Lees, Ben Roberts and Andre Bradford provide the experience with over 230 games for Shropshire between them. Excluding the ages of the oldest three players, as per NCCA playing rules, there is no player named over the age of 25.
Theo Wylie is on the Warwickshire staff and has recently been playing for Warwickshire 2nds after representing England Under-19s.
Shropshire: Joe Johnson (Shifnal), Harry Chandler (Wem), Tom Fell (Shifnal) capt., Andre Bradford (Hallam), Theo Wylie (Millford Hall), Roman Walker (Leicester Ivanhoe), Matt Simmons (Wellington), Cameron Jones (Himley), Ben Lees (Shifnal) wk, Joe Stanley (Wolverhampton), Ben Roberts (Shifnal).
Cumbria: Michael Slack (Carlisle) capt, Louis Backhouse (Kendal), Freddie Fallows (Kendal), Tom Fraine (Clifton Alliance), Drew Postlethwaite (Barrow) wk, Calum Rowe (Carlisle), Matthew Sempill (Cockermouth), Sam Sharp (Penrith), Ben Walkden (Newton-le-WIllows), Nico Watt (Carlisle), Max Winskill (Shaw).
The weather looks set to be good with hardly any rain forecast across the country for the rest of the month.
The match will be streamed on the Shropshire CCC YouTube channel.
