Thanks to the continued support of the European Cricket Network, Cricket España will be sending a fourteen man playing squad to contest several T10 Internationals against Cricket Italy next weekend.

Coming off the back of the news that Spain had moved up three spots to a career high number 30 in the T20I rankings the team will use this series to experiment with fringe players to add depth and competition to the final selection of the team heading to Guernsey in August for the European World Cup qualifiers.

Christian Munoz-Mills will skipper the side and the experienced Awais Ahmed will take on the role of vice-captain for the first time.

The overseas duo of Alec Davidson-Soler (who has just received equipment sponsorship from Grizzly Sports) will head to Brescia along with Dani Martinez-Long from the United Kingdom and four players are rewarded with their debuts after impressive performances for their respective clubs in the most recent European Cricket Series in Barcelona and the European Cricket League in Cartama.

Asad Rabbani performed admirably for Pak-I-Care in the last ECL to help his club finish fourth. Proving that current form does not go unnoticed Coach Rutgers has drafted Waseem Abbas, Murad Ali and Omar Ali to travel to Italy as well.

Abbas was the leading run scorer in the ECS for Pak Barcelona, and Murad Ali showed quality and pace with the ball, to deliver the most economical figures in the competition. Arguably, the most interesting new addition is Omar Ali. Omar has rose up through the Junior ranks and has been on the Spanish radar for a while. Winning the MVP Young player award in ECS Barcelona cemented his opportunity and got him on the plane to Bergamo.

The Cataluyna influence does not stop there, as Snehith Reddy, Sheraz Iqbal, Ameer Hamzah, Babar Khan, Mati Ur-Rehman and Muhammad Atif complete the line-up.

Spanish coach Corey Rutgers addressed the selection saying “Another great opportunity to play cricket together and expand the national group, the series offers players the chance to put their hand up for T20 and ECC selection later in the year.

Only two players from the Jersey series who took the field in the ranking games are retained for Italy (with Christian Munoz-Milla and Muhammad Atif returning).

Four new debutants have been selected who excelled at the ECS Barcelona, and I am excited to see them represent Spain. It also offers another opportunity to the likes of Dani Long-Martinez, Snehith Reddy, Mati Ur-Rehman, Alec Davidson-Soler and others who have had a very small taste of national cricket to impress.

I am delighted to offer a welcome return to Awais Ahmed and growing our group isa major focus for us so we are very thankful to Cricket Italia for hosting us and to the ECN for organizing these matches”

The Spanish women’s team also face Italy the same weekend to ensure there is a wealth of cricket to watch on livestream in Spain on May 11^th and 12^th.

‍