Worcestershire trio Jack Haynes, Adam Finch and Zain Ul-Hassan will link up today with the Midlands team for the prestigious Super Fours at the National Performance Centre, Loughborough.
The tournament gets underway tomorrow with the Midlands taking on the South West in a 50 over contest.
Paceman Finch will be participating for the second time in a tournament which is the Under-17s equivalent of the Bunburys.
Four members of the England Under-19s squad – including Finch – are among the 56 young talents who will contest the fifth Super-Fours competition.
Derbyshire’s Hamidullah Qadri will also line up for the Midlands, Essex seamer Ben Allison for London and East, and Somerset all-rounder Tom Lammonby – who was named England’s best player in the Royal London One-Day Under-19s Series against India – for the South West.
James Taylor, the former Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and England batsman, will speak to the players when they gather in Loughborough later today.
The cricket will be watched by a number of England’s lead coaches as well as Young Lions selectors and scouts, raising the stakes for the players involved.
The North have dominated the competition since it was introduced in 2013, winning their third title out of four last summer – when Yorkshire’s Harry Brook was named man of the tournament, and Durham’s Matt Potts was man of the match in the final.
Both those players have represented their counties at first-team level this season, as well as joining Qadri, Finch, Allison and Lammonby in the England Under-19 squad – showing why the Super-Fours are well worth watching for fans with an eye on the future.
The Super-Fours week has a different structure this year.
The teams will again play each other in 50-over matches over the first three days of competition, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
But instead of a Finals Day on the Saturday, the champions will be determined by the final placings in the league table – leaving Saturday clear for a separate T20 competition.
Midlands
Jaques Banton (Warwicks)
Ethan Brookes (Warwicks)
Ben Claydon (Northants)
Jordan Cook (Notts)
Adam Finch (Worcs)
Ben Griffin (Warwicks)
Connor Haddow (Northants)
Jack Haynes (Worcs)
Nick Kimber (Notts)
Adam King (Northants)
Hamidullah Qadri (Derbys)
James Taylor (Derbys)
Zain Ul Hassan (Worcs)
Robert Yates (Warwicks)
FIXTURES
Tuesday August 22 – Midlands v South West 50 overs
Wednesday August 23 – Midlands v North 50 overs
Thursday August 24 – rest and reserve day
Friday August 25 – Midlands v London and East 50 overs
Saturday August 26 – Midlands v North T20 followed by final
