Somerset Academy player Ben Church, top order South Asian Cricket Academy batter Savin Perera, and Berkshire batter Johnny Connell have been included in the squad which is heavily depleted by players off at the Hundred.

Somerset have announced the squad for this summer’s Metro Bank One Day Cup with the squad to be captained by Lewis Goldsworthy.

Somerset Academy player Ben Church, top order South Asian Cricket Academy batter Savin Perera, and Berkshire batter Johnny Connell have been included in the squad which is heavily depleted by players off at the Hundred.

Will Smeed, Tom Banton, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Tom Abell, Thomas Rew, James Rew, Lewis Gregory, and Craig Overton are all with Hundred teams, while Alfie Ogborne and Fin Hill are out injured, leading to additions needed to make up the 14 man squad.

18-year-old Church is a right-handed batter and wicket-keeper who hails from Bath where he attended Beechen Cliff School before moving to Taunton School. His cricketing journey began at Lansdowne CC before he moved to Bath CC. He joined the Somerset Pathway at Under 10 level.

Connell, who is 23, made his Berkshire debut in 2022 and made 150 to help them defeat Middlesex in a 50-over game at Falkland that summer. He has since gone on to make five centuries for Berkshire across the formats. He also made a century for the National Counties XI against a strong Zimbabwe Emerging side in 2024 and was part of the side which retained the European T10 title in Spain later that year.

Perera is a 27-year-old left-handed top order batter is a former England under 19 international who has featured in two Second XI County Championship matches for Somerset this summer, scoring 282 runs at an average of 70.50 with a best of 113.

After being awarded the Captaincy, Goldsworthy said: “I’m really proud and honoured to have the opportunity. It’s really special to get that backing from the Club and that gives you an extra bit of confidence. There’s a lot of history in this format for Somerset, so hopefully I can lead that forward and represent the Club well.

“It’s a format that sees us lose quite a lot of players, but we’ve seen over the last few years that we’ve got the talent to deal with that and make real strides in the competition. Hopefully, we can keep that going this year.

“We’ve seen the likes of James and Thomas Rew perform in this competition and go on to become First Team regulars. The Metro Bank One Day Cup gives young players First Team experience and gives them exposure to playing in front of big crowds and against good teams. That helps you to deal with the pressure. I know because I benefited from it when I was younger. We do lose a lot of players, but that creates an incredible opportunity for some of the younger guys.

“I’ll try to lead by example, and I’ll be leaning on some of the more experienced players in our dressing room as well. So, it won’t all be about me. I’ll have a bit of help along the way.”

Ahead of the tournament, Somerset Head Coach, Jason Kerr said: “From my point of view, it’s incredibly exciting. There’s significant numbers heading off to The Hundred, but with that comes the opportunity for some of our younger players to play First Team cricket in a pressurised environment and to develop the skills and showcase what they can do.

“Our aims haven’t changed. We’ll look to win every game that we play, adopt the same philosophy and hopefully the squad can put in the performances that they’re certainly capable of. The squad are very aware of the expectation around Somerset as a club in terms of the way we’ve played cricket over a number of years now and there’s the expectation to win. That certainly won’t change despite losing a few players to The Hundred.

“We need to make sure that we’ve got enough resources to compete through the competition, so we’ve brought in Ben Church, Savin Perera and Johnny Connell.

“Ben is a product of the Academy who will get an opportunity behind the sticks but also to show what he can do with a bat.

“Sav has scored a lot of Second Team runs and has scored heavily year-on-year and deserves this opportunity.

“Johnny is a really exciting young talent. He spent some time at Exeter University and Alex Barrow knows him well. He’s scored hundreds against First Class counties and will add depth to the batting line-up.”