KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Jamaica Scorpions will be strengthened for their trip to Warner Park in St Kitts to face Leeward Islands Volcanoes, as regular captain and frontline spinner, Nikita Miller has returned to the squad.
The 35-year-old, Scorpions’ most experienced player, missed the first three rounds while recuperating from a recent surgery.
Despite his side’s struggles, left-armer Miller was the leading wicket-taker in the last four-day season with 58 scalps, and boasts 461 wickets from 90 first class matches all told.
“To have Nikita Miller is always a positive and we are looking forward to him being in the team again,” stand-in captain Paul Palmer told the Observer newspaper here.
Without Miller, Scorpions have failed to win a match to date, and are one from bottom of the six-team standings on 18.2 points.
They lost to three-time reigning champions, Guyana Jaguars, by 263 runs in the opening round before drawing away to Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in the second round fixture and then with Barbados Pride here last weekend.
Though most of the first two days of the last match against Pride at Sabina Park was lost to rain, Scorpions still found themselves battling to avoid defeat on the final day, and Palmer underscored the need for consistency and proper execution.
“I think we bowled well in patches, but we didn’t bowl well enough for long periods that’s required for four days of cricket,” he noted.
“We just have to work on that aspect and be more consistent, bowl to our fields, and stick to our plans and execute them as a unit.”
The fourth round of the Regional Four-Day Championship bowls off Thursday.
SQUAD – Nikita Miller (captain), John Campbell, Garth Garvey, Trevon Griffith, Assad Fudadin, Brandon King, Paul Palmer, Stephen Taylor, Derval Green, Dennis Bulli, Damion Jacobs, Reynard Leveridge, Oshane Thomas.
