Tuesday 9 April 2013 13:09, UK
Hot prospect Toby Roland-Jones reckons Middlesex's innovative approach to pre-season training could give them the edge over their rivals this summer.
Middlesex surprised many pundits with a third-place finish in their first season back in Division One of the County Championship last season and Roland-Jones says they are keen to emulate that performance this summer. However, he revealed the team are also targeting success in the limited over formats, with a particular emphasis on the shortest form of the game. "We'll look to be more competitive across all forms and maintain the four-day cricket we've been playing but, in particular, we want to improve in the T20s," he said. "Over the last few years they've been pretty disappointing for us so it would be nice to rectify that and put a challenge together in our group. That will definitely be a focus, while in Pro 40 we've not been too far off and perhaps fallen at the last hurdle recently. "People were surprised by our County Championship form last season but a lot of people were too quick to write us off; some even thought we'd struggle to avoid relegation. "But we had strong aspirations to have a good season and it's nice to be on the other side now and have people saying we're going to be competitive." Sky Sports will show each county at least three times, with 60 live fixtures from the Yorkshire Bank 40, LV=County Championship and Friends Life t20. In addition, our cameras will be at Essex when they host the England team for their Ashes warm-up match. Click here for more details.
