Miller and Sharma called into Northants squad ahead of Gloucestershire clash

Head coach Darren Lehmann promised changes to the Northants side for the County Ground showdown, and he has added Miller and Sharma to the 13 named for last weekend’s defeat to Glamorgan in Cardiff.

Both were part of the second team’s impressive Championship win over Surrey a little more than a week ago, with Miller opening the batting and hitting 60 in the first innings, while Sharma made 31 batting at in the second.

Lehmann now has to decide whether to utilise the pair to freshen up a top order that has failed to fire this summer, or to stick with those that have struggled so far.

Luke Procter aside, the top order has underpeformed, with George Bartlett (average 22.88), Ricardo Vasconcelos (20.60), James Sales (18.70) and Rob Keogh (18.00) all low on runs.

Gloucestershire have made one change to the squad that saw them to a first win of the season against Kent last week, with Archie Bailey replacing Josh Shaw.

They are captained by Cameron Bancroft, and also include fellow Australian and all-rounder Cameron Green in their ranks.

They will be two players that Northants fast bowler Harry Conway will be targeting, as he plays the final match of his four-game stint at the County Ground.

Meanwhile, Lehmann admits he has been impressed by the standard of county cricket’s second division.

The Australian has played and coached all over the world in a trophy-laden career.

As a coach, he has won the World Cup and Ashes with his country, and he has also guided teams to glory in the Indian Premier League and domestic success in red and white ball cricket Down Under.

His stint at Northants is his first as a coach in county cricket in England, and after six first-class matches at the helm at the County Ground, his early impression is that the standard of the game in the English second tier is pretty high.

Although showing what they are capable of in some games, the County have so far struggled overall under Lehmann's leadership, winning one and losing three of their six fixtures, and they go into Friday's home date with Gloucestershire sitting bottom of the table after last weekend's defeat at Glamorgan.

And Lehmann is expecting yet another tough test in what he deems to be a strong competition.

"Gloucestershire are a good side, and it is quality cricket in division two," the head coach told BBC Northampton. "You just have to look at what happened in our game against Glamorgan.

"We won all the sessions on Sunday, and we won the first session on day one, so we have won four out of nine sessions and got belted in the end (Northants lost by eight wickets inside three days).

"If we had made another 100 or 150 runs then it would have been game on, and all the sides in the division are so close, it’s the flip of a coin in most matches.

"So the challenge for us is to now bounce back, get ready for Friday, and to play well."

Northants squad v Gloucestershire: Luke Procter, George Bartlett, Justin Broad, Harry Conway, Liam Guthrie, Calvin Harrison, Rob Keogh, Dom Leech, Lewis McManus, Gus Miller, James Sales, Ben Sanderson, Aadi Sharma, Ricardo Vasconcelos, Saif Zaib

Gloucestershire squad v Northants: Cameron Bancroft, Graeme vam Buuren, Zaman Akhter, Joe Phillips, James Bracey, Archie Bailey, Cameron Green, Matt Taylor, Ajeet Singh Dale, Tom Price, Ed Middleton, Ben Charlesworth, Ollie Price, Miles Hammond