Surrey’s squad strength key to title defence

The only way last season could have been better for the champions Surrey would have been if they had made more of an impact in the white-ball formats. Appropriately, their pre-season has been a case of them looking to retain what worked so well for them last year, while also bringing in talent which might provide them with something they were missing elsewhere. Pretty simple really.

There has been only one change in the coaching department, despite rumours that Alec Stewart was in line to replace Andrew Strauss as managing director of England cricket, with Richard Johnson joining from Middlesex as bowling coach. They have also given new contracts to 14 of their squad ahead of the new season. The aim of this, in Stewart’s words, is “to enable us to build on last year’s Championship success”. Retaining the Championship is the obvious goal, and signing the Curran brothers to new contracts, along with captain Rory Burns, Ben Foakes and Ollie Pope among others will have done their chances no harm. Nor will re-signing the dogmatic South Africa Dean Elgar as an overseas player. What might harm their chances however, is the likely absence of a number of their players through international selection.

With great success comes recognition and it looks likely that Burns, Sam Curran and possibly Foakes will all be absent for at least some of the season due to either Test commitments or an IPL contract in the case of Curran. Tom Curran, Jason Roy and new signing Liam Plunkett are also likely to be part of the England squad for the World Cup during late May and July. Arun Harinath was one of the 14 players who extended their stay at the club, despite his lack of games in 2018, probably with an eye to providing cover for Burns.

Plunkett is not the only new face who has joined Surrey. Former Lancashire allrounder Jordan Clark, who scored his one and only first-class century against Surrey at The Oval in 2017, has also joined their ranks.

He will be a big player in the limited-overs game. Surrey failed to make the knockout stage of the Royal London One-Day Cup, having made the final in the previous three seasons, and also failed to get out of the group in the Blast, despite the brilliance of Aaron Finch, who returns this year. Should he remain injury free, Plunkett will be available for the majority of both of these tournaments which should make them a more dangerous prospect.

Surrey’s bowling was utterly relentless last season. Their attack of Morne Morkel, Sam Curran, Amar Virdi, Jade Dernbach and the indominable Rikki Clarke kept Surrey in almost every game they played. However, they also showed the great depth they could call upon throughout. Tom Curran made a fantastic contribution late in the season replacing his younger brother who was away on England duty, while Conor McKerr looks an exciting prospect. Morkel has extended his contract to 2020 a huge boost.

Such were the performances of Burns and Ollie Pope last season, it’s easy to forget that Surrey’s batting line-up also includes other talented batsmen like Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick. Stoneman showed glimmers of the form that got him into the England set-up towards the end of last year while Borthwick’s five half-centuries in 12 innings show a player who threatened to have a strong year. If they can perform to their capabilities in 2019, then Surrey may not miss captain fantastic Burns too much while he is away with England.

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