Steelbacks targeting strong start in home opener to Metro Bank One Day Cup campaign

The Steelbacks entertain the Falcons in their opening Group A encounter but then face three away games on the spin in the space of six days, so they will be looking to make home advantage pay at Wantage Road.

Northants have named a 14-man squad for the 50-over clash, with overseas signings Matthew Breetzke and Ashton Agar dropping out from the Blast squad, as well as David Willey and Ravi Bopara who are both playing in The Hundred.

But it is still a strong squad that Sadler has to pick from, with Indian batter Prithvi Shaw coming into the equation, along with the likes of Emilio Gay, Rob Keogh, George Bartlett and James Sales.The team will be captained by Lewis McManus.

And on the importance of making a positive start to the One Day Cup, the head coach said: "It is an eight-game tournament, so it is quite a quick one.

"If you get off to a good start then you are in the mix, but if you get off to a poor start it can be tough to get back into it,

"We do want to get off to that good start in the first two or three games and play some good cricket.

"Then you also want to be playing your best cricket towards the end of the tournament when the business end starts, but you have make sure to get there.

"But we are ready to go against Derbyshire and we are looking forward to it."

Derbyshire will arrive at the County Ground without Pat Brown, Aneurin Donald and Wayne Madsen who are all playing in The Hundred, while Alex Thomson and Daryn Dupavillon are both injured.

They can still field a side including the likes of Samit Patel, David Lloyd and Luis Reece, and they have a new captain in Ross Whiteley.

Derbyshire have named a 13-man squad to take on the Steelbacks, which includes academy products Harry Moore, Yousaf Bin Naeem, Mitch Wagstaff, Nick Potts and Sam Conners.

Northants squad v Derbyshire: Lewis McManus (c/wk), George Bartlett, Mike Finan, Emilio Gay, Ron Keogh, Gus Miller, Alex Russell, James Sales, Ben Sanderson, Prithvi Shaw, Ricard Vasconcelos, Raphy Weatherall, Jack White, Saif Zaib

Derbyshire squad v Northants: Harry Came, Matt Lamb, Luis Reece, Harry Moore, Yousaf Bin Naeem, Samit Patel, Mitch Wagstaff, Nick Potts, Brooke Guest, Zak Chappell, Ross Whiteley (c), David Lloyd, Sam Conners