Matty Revis available for Yorkshire despite England Lions call-up
MATTY REVIS will be available to Yorkshire for their County Championship clash with Essex at Headingley despite being named in the England Lions squad to face Sri Lanka.
Revis is expected to play for the club in the four-day match beginning on Tuesday after being included in a 20-man Lions squad for two T20s - the first of which takes place on day four of the Championship game.
Revis is thus set to miss that fixture in Chelmsford and come into contention instead for the second T20 at Beckenham on Sunday.
Yorkshire return to Championship duty two days after that (next Tuesday) against Somerset at Headingley.
Yorkshire leg-spinner Jafer Chohan is also in the Lions squad but not in the 14-man squad for the Essex game.
Yorkshire were dragged back into the relegation scrap after a one-wicket defeat against Surrey at The Oval on Friday, with head coach Anthony McGrath targeting a strong finish to the season.
“We know what’s in front of us,” McGrath said.
“We can’t get higher and put ourselves in that title contention unfortunately, but we can still finish in a positive manner and get up as high as we can.”
McGrath is contemplating changes to his bowling attack amid a gruelling schedule of six Championship games in as many weeks.
“The bowlers will be absolutely shattered (after Surrey), so we might have to look at the bowling line-up,” he said.
“The three seamers (Ben Coad, Jack White and George Hill), in particular, have put a hell of a lot in.
“There’s one or two tired bodies, and we might have to look at rotating.”
Yorkshire squad versus Essex: Lyth, Luxton, Whiteman, Wharton, Revis, Bairstow (captain), Hill, Bess, Coad, Cliff, Yadav, Sylvester, White, Bean.
England Lions squad: Banton, Chohan, Coles, Crane, Crocombe, Donald, Falconer, Hartley, Jack, Jacks, Mahmood, Mayes, McKinney, Moores, Overton, Revis, Sales, Sykes, Walter, Wood.
Jonathan Trott is head coach for the Lions series, with a coaching staff of Troy Cooley, Graeme Swann, Ravi Bopara and Carl Hopkinson.