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Bears leave Trott out of Finals Day squad

Warwickshire welcome back Ian Bell and Chris Woakes for NatWest Blast T20 Finals Day, but there is no place in their 15-man squad for Jonathan Trott.

George Dobell
George Dobell
22-Aug-2014
Warwickshire welcome back Ian Bell and Chris Woakes for NatWest Blast T20 Finals Day, but there is no place in their 15-man squad for Jonathan Trott.
While Trott set a T20 record aggregate for the most runs in a 10-match qualifying campaign in 2009, he has played very few games in the format since 2010. And while Warwickshire's director of cricket, Dougie Brown, feels that Trott's form is returning to somewhere near its best, he felt the shortest format of the game had moved on since the last time he played.
"Trotty hasn't played a lot of T20 cricket over the last five or six years," Brown said. "And when he did play it was a dramatically different game.
"His game is more suited to 50-over and four-day cricket, going towards ODI and Test cricket. Whether he would feature in a T20 side for England I would probably doubt, but clearly he has vast experience in all formats of the game but you can only pick XI and you've got to make that call."
Trott actually made his international debut in T20 cricket in 2007. But having played just one T20 match in 2011, he did not play again until June of this year when he was in the early days of his return from a stress-related illness. He struggled for fluency in the two matches he played - including a 38-ball innings of 39 against Worcestershire - and has since been restricted to List A and first-class cricket.
Trott has scored three centuries - two in the Royal London Cup and one in the County Championship - since July 21 but, despite Warwickshire lacking one of their overseas players - Shoaib Malik - and reflecting on the news that their club captain, Jim Troughton, has been forced to retire with a back injury, Trott still missed out to younger men such as Scotland's Freddie Coleman and 22-year-old Jonathon Webb.
"T20 is a very skilful game," Brown explained. "I'm not saying he's not an extremely skilful player. But if you're looking at having players who play 360 degrees - the likes of Laurie Evans and the new breed like Coleman and Webb, who can play all sorts of different, inventive shots - is that Trotty?
"I think he's happy playing four-day and 50-over cricket. He's a great player. A proper player. He's a world-class player when he's at his best and I reckon he's getting back to somewhere close to that."
Bell, meanwhile, has not represented Warwickshire in this format since 2010, and accepts he lacks match-practise in T20 cricket. But he is relishing the opportunity to represent the side he supported as a boy at Finals Day on his home ground.
"It's not always easy for us England players to come back and take the place of people who have been doing well for the club," Bell admitted. "But we're desperate to play as much as we can for Warwickshire.
"Days like this are great. They are the ones you remember when you finish playing and the ones you want to be part of.
"As an England player, you hardly get the chance to play T20. And if you don't get picked by England in T20, you don't play for anyone. I went through a period when I just didn't play any. You need to play T20 regularly to know where you are and your game-plan.
"At the start of the season, when it was announced the games would be on Friday nights, I thought I'd play more. But I've probably played less. It's been hard to do."
Warwickshire also welcome back fast bowler Boyd Rankin from a hamstring injury, but are without Keith Barker, who has an elbow injury but is expected to play the next Championship game, and Chris Wright, who has a stress fracture and will not play again this season.

George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo