Scottish Saltires selectors rejected the chance to introduce fresh blood for Sunday's match with Yorkshire at the Citylets Grange, even though their batsmen have been miserably out of touch in their Friends Provident Trophy campaign this summer.

In an unadventurous selection, the sole piece of positive news is the fact that the in-form Navdeep Singh Poonia has again been released by Warwickshire to play for his country. Otherwise, such as Fraser Watts, Neil McCallum, Gavin Hamilton and Colin Smith have been offered another chance, even though they are all averaging less than 20 in this season's tournament.

The services of Ed Cowan, the Australian professional, have been retained, although Cricket Scotland would surely have been better served by placing him on a match-by-match contract and calling up an overseas all-rounder such as Ayr's Matt Horne.

Qasim Sheikh, who smashed a superb 73 for Clydesdale in the Murgitroyd Twenty20 Rowan Cup on Tuesday night, must wonder why he has been overlooked, along with such talented youngsters as Ryan Flannigan, the star of the Scotland Under-20 tour to South Africa during the winter. The absence of Majid Haq from the 13-man party is also puzzling.

As it is, the Scots will once more be dependent on their bowlers to try to create a match-winning situation, and there is no shortage of talent in the ranks, with the prolific John Blain and Dewald Nel backed up by youngsters Gordon Goudie and Sean Weeraratna and spinner Glenn Rogers.