Worcestershire Director Of Cricket Steve Rhodes has named a 12 strong squad for the Specsavers County Championship clash with Glamorgan at the Swalec Stadium starting tomorrow.
Rhodes has chosen the 11 players who featured in the drawn game with Division Two leaders Essex at New Road this week – plus paceman Charlie Morris who has been in Second Eleven action against Leicestershire for the past four days.
Moeen Ali will play the final match of the three game spell he was given permission to participate in by the ECB ahead of England's forthcoming Test series with Sri Lanka.
Worcestershire will be striving for their first win of the season after achieving maximum batting points in the high-scoring encounters with Gloucestershire and Essex.
Four of their batsmen in Moeen Ali, Joe Clarke, Brett D'Oliveira and Tom Kohler-Cadmore have already registered centuries.
Rhodes said: "When teams get big scores against you, it is easy to crumble a little bit but we haven't done that. We have shown some really good resilience and bounced back from the totals that the opposition have posted.
"We have shown we can bat ourselves so it is just a matter of time as to when our bowlers take wickets and, as long as we carry on making runs, we will be in a strong position.
"Hopefully we can take those 20 wickets and get some points on the table. We got maximum bonus points at Bristol and only one less against Essex so that tells you we are getting nearer (to winning)."
Rhodes was delighted to see last season's leading wicket-taker and Players' Player Of The Year Joe Leach amongst the wickets against Essex with a five wicket burst on the third morning.
He said: "I think Joe has been under a little bit of pressure with the ball and he was desperate to make some sort of impact.
"Sometimes you can try too hard in this game and if you try too hard, it won't happen.
"He sort of relaxed, let it go and came away with the wickets. It was good to see him back amongst the wickets."
Glamorgan have lost two of their opening three Championship fixtures.
Rhodes said: "Glamorgan could either be a wounded animal and fight back strongly in this game or they might not be feeling too good about themselves and we could come away with a win.
"In sport, teams go through good phases and not so good phases. It is only early in the season and I do not think Glamorgan would be panicking at this stage.
"They haven't started as well as they could have done but there are a lot of teams who can beat each other in this division.
"We are looking forward to going there and trying to get the points."
Glamorgan have lost only one of their last 11 home meetings with Worcestershire but they have failed to win in 11 fixtures since an eight game unbeaten start to last season.
Worcestershire will be seeking their first away win in the Championship since the clash with Gloucestershire at Cheltenham in July 2014.
Worcestershire (from):
Mitchell
D'Oliveira
Moeen Ali
Clarke
Kohler-Cadmore
Whiteley
Cox
Leach
Barnard
Henry
Shantry
Morris
