{"id":64514,"date":"2025-08-13T17:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T17:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/64514\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T17:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T17:37:08","slug":"preview-yorkshire-men-v-somerset-mbodc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/64514\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Yorkshire Men v Somerset, MBODC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Gavin<\/p>\n

Picture by Allan McKenzie\/SWPix.com. Gavin Hamilton has heaped praise on Imam-Ul-Haq and Yorkshire\u2019s squad, who are turning their season around.<\/p>\n

Gavin Hamilton says Yorkshire have \u201cmore than struck gold\u201d with the overseas signing of Imam-Ul-Haq.<\/p>\n

The experienced Pakistani left-hander, 29, was signed for the final two months of the summer late last month and has started his spell with the club like a house on fire.<\/p>\n

Having debuted in the Rothesay County Championship victory over Sussex at Scarborough, scoring 19 in his only innings of the match, he has gone on to post scores of 55, 159 and 117 in a trio of Metro Bank One-Day Cup victories.<\/p>\n

His half-century came in the Group B opener against Warwickshire at Scarborough last Tuesday, the 159 was a List A career best at Northampton last Friday before he backed it up with another ton in Tuesday\u2019s victory over Lancashire at York.<\/p>\n

General manager of cricket Hamilton has revealed that Imam is without doubt under consideration for a return to the county in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possibly a bit early to say anything for definite just yet,\u201d he said, ahead of tomorrow\u2019s latest Group B clash with Somerset at York, starting at 11am.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, look, it\u2019s hugely on the radar.<\/p>\n

\"Imam-Ul-Haq\"<\/p>\n

Picture by John Clifton\/SWPix.com. Imam-Ul-Haq has made a stunning start to life in a Yorkshire shirt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also had Abdullah Shafique for a short period of time. And they\u2019ve both been class.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve shown what old-school batters can do, still attack and play in the modern game. Abdullah scored those two fifties at the back end of the Blast (against Lancashire and Leicestershire), and they\u2019ve both controlled the innings and added some stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say this when I speak about overseas players. It\u2019s about building that rapport with these guys. They need to enjoy being here, and it makes those conversations about returning much easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cPending international commitments, depending where Imam and Abdullah are, they\u2019ll definitely be top of the agenda if we\u2019re looking at batters. 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imam and Shafique are two of six overseas players who have been signed for Yorkshire\u2019s men in 2025; Jordan Buckingham, Will O\u2019Rourke, Ben Sears and Will Sutherland the others.<\/p>\n

There have been frustrations here and there with injuries and visa issues, including a delay for Imam which prevented him from debuting in the Championship draw against Surrey at Scarborough last month.<\/p>\n

But Hamilton said: \u201cI think we\u2019ve probably got one not quite where we wanted to, but we\u2019ve got something out of all the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Imam-Ul-Haq\"<\/p>\n

Picture by John Clifton\/SWPix.com. Imam-Ul-Haq in action against Lancashire yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Imam arrived at the club as a late replacement for India batter Ruturaj Gaikwad, who pulled out of his deal due to personal issues on the day he was due to arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all very quick,\u201d said Hamilton. \u201cRuturaj pulled out on the Thursday, and we were playing Surrey in the Championship on the following Tuesday. Could we turn it around quick enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it was, he was available, and we got it all up and running by the Friday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told his visa was all sorted, and unfortunately it didn\u2019t quite turn out that way. But, look, I would say that it ended up turning out for the better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a really good game against Surrey, and I think for him to be around the group and see what we\u2019re about was a really good thing. It enabled him to hit the ground running against Sussex and then obviously into the 50-over stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looks so at ease at the crease. He\u2019s good in defence and leaves very well but knows when to attack when he needs to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an old-school, modern-day player if that makes sense.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/p>\n

Picture by Allan McKenzie\/SWPix.com. Head coach Anthony McGrath and his players are on course for the One-Day Cup knockouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great lad as well. Speaking to the players, they love having him around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imam faces his former county Somerset at Clifton Park tomorrow \u2013 he represented the Taunton side in three Championship matches towards the end of 2022 \u2013 looking to secure his fifth straight win in a Yorkshire shirt.<\/p>\n

Starting with the final game of the Blast group stage at Leicestershire on July 18, Yorkshire are six games unbeaten across all competitions, winning five of those.<\/p>\n

They currently sit top of the Metro Bank Group B standings and are on course for a top-three finish and knockout cricket. This is the first of five remaining games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say that from the Surrey game, there\u2019s been a real shift in mindset,\u201d said Hamilton. \u201cJust the way we\u2019ve gone about our cricket and just the way everyone\u2019s just turned up in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe belief has grown from the performance they put in against Surrey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there was the win against Sussex in the Championship, the scrappy Warwickshire win in the 50-overs. The win at Northampton, you literally can\u2019t put together a better win than that in all departments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Picture by Steve Bardens\/Getty Images. Somerset\u2019s One-Day Cup captain James New has also skippered the England Lions this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew this kind of thing would happen. We were always confident of that. We just thought it would happen a bit sooner than it has done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys are finding their roles, we\u2019ve not had any injuries recently \u2013 touch wood. Things are slowly falling into place. Fingers crossed, it continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe T20 was tough because it all comes thick and fast. By our own admission, it wasn\u2019t good enough. But if we started the T20 campaign again now, I\u2019m sure it would be a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somerset have so far played three, won two and lost one in the One-Day Cup.\u00a0They are captained by up and coming wicketkeeper-batter James Rew, the 21-year-old who was in England\u2019s Test squad for their early-summer clash with Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

His younger brother Thomas, 17, is also a wicketkeeper-batter and is in their team.\u00a0Both players have started the competition well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Somerset were beaten by Lancashire at Taunton on Sunday in their last game.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Picture by Allan McKenzie\/SWPix.com. Gavin Hamilton has heaped praise on Imam-Ul-Haq and Yorkshire\u2019s squad, who are turning their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-64514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}