Tom Smith has been named in 12-man Lancashire squad for their Specsavers County Championship match against promotion rivals Surrey at Emirates Old Trafford starting on Sunday.
The Red Rose county enter this fixture following successive defeats, after being beaten by Durham at Chester-le-Street in the four-day contest, before suffering a resounding nine-wicket defeat against Derbyshire in their opening NatWest T20 Blast match of the summer.
Smith, who last featured in red-ball cricket against Derbyshire in April last season, made his first appearance for the First Team in Lancashire's opening Twenty20 match against the Falcons, scoring nine runs. When Smith last featured for Lancashire he was the Club's captain, but a potentially career-ending back injury kept him on the sidelines for the remainder of the 2015 season.
Surrey narrowly pipped Lancashire to the Division Two crown last season, but they have made a poor start to life in the top flight. The southern side have lost two and drawn three of their opening five matches, suffering an innings defeat against county champions Yorkshire earlier this month.
Teenage maestro Haseeb Hameed has made a strong start to the season, recording two half-centuries in four matches, averaging 38.40 with the bat. The 19-year-old opening batsman's highest first-class score for Lancashire came when he hit 91 against Surrey at Old Trafford to help the Red Rose earn a draw and secure their place back in Division One of the four-day contest.
Hameed scored 74 in Lancashire's first innings earlier this week, but the visitors were bowled out for 251 in their second innings and were beaten by 73 runs against Durham. Two wins in as many attempts at Old Trafford has made it a profitable home venue for the Red Rose, following convincing victories against Nottinghamshire and Hampshire.
Even after their disappointing defeat at Durham, Ashley Giles' side find themselves in third place, with a game in hand over the majority of other counties in the first division. The trick for Lancashire will be to see how well they can respond to a disheartening week of cricket, as they prepare to take on a Surrey side packed with international talent.
Former Sri Lanka run machine Kumar Sangakkara - who recorded 12,400 runs at Test level - returns as an overseas player for Surrey this summer across all formats and the wicketkeeper batsman will be hoping for another good showing against Lancashire after scoring a century on his last visit to Old Trafford in the four-day contest.
Lancashire 12-man squad: Steven Croft (c), Tom Bailey, Karl Brown, Alex Davies (wk), Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Jarvis, Simon Kerrigan, Liam Livingstone, Alviro Petersen, Luke Procter, Tom Smith, Neil Wagner.
Surrey 13-man squad: Gareth Batty (c), James Burke, Rory Burns, Tom Curran, Steven Davies, Matthew Dunn, Ben Foakes (wk), Arun Harinath, Stuart MEaker, Mathew Pillans, Jason Roy, Kumar Sangakkara, Gary Wilson.
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