Coach Lehmann backing fellow Aussie Conway to be a big hit at Northants

The Australian fast bowler has signed for a month-long stay at Wantage Road, and has gone straight into the squad for the Rothesay County Championship clash with Leicestershire at Grace Road that starts on Friday (11am).

Conway is a South Australia team-mate of Lehmann's son Jake, so the Northants coach knows tall about him, and he is backing the 32-year-old to become a firm favourite with the club's players and supporters.

"Harry is a mad badger, and people are going to love him," Lehmann told SteelbacksTV.

"He is infectious in his attitude, and in the way he plays the game, and he is a lot taller than you think.

"He hits the deck hard and hopefully he will provide some wickets for us early on in the next couple of games.

"Harry is one of those blokes that is up and about, and it is a really good time to get him."

Conway will undoubtedly add firepower to the Northants pace attack, which received another welcome boost this week with the return from injury of Ben Sanderson.

The veteran seamer missed the first three matches of the season with a knee problem, but bowled 21 overs for the seconds in their defeat at Leicestershire earlier this week, and is now ready for action, which is something Lehmann is very happy about.

"Sando is back in, and I am really pleased for him because he has worked really hard to get his knee right to get back, and we will look after him as best we can from here," said the Australian.

"He is such an experienced player, and an important player in our side, so we are looking forward to him playing well.

"So we have Sando coming back in, Conway coming in, and Liam Guthrie as well, so we are looking pretty good.

"We will wait until we see the wicket (at Leicestershire) before we announce the side, and have a look to see if it is a greenish wicket or flat, we just don't know what we are going to get."

The trip to Grace Road is a third away trip on the spin for Northants, who haven't played at home since losing their opening match to Kent on April 6.

They have had the better of drawn matches at Lancashire and Derbyshire, but are still without a win this season.

The Foxes have won two and draw two so far to sit top of the tree, and they are already 40 points better off than second-from-bottom Northants, although they have played a game more.

This is a match the County can't really afford to lose if they have any ambition of winning division two this season, and Lehman appreciates it is a key fixture.

"Leicestershire have played well, they bat deep and they have some good players," said the head coach.

"They are a good side so we will have to play well, but we are in good nick as a unit, and now it's a case of transferring that again to the first day, first session and first hour.

"We need to play as well as we can to get into the game and get ahead of the game, and if we can do that and keep their big playes quiet then that will go a long way to things going well for us over the four days.

"This is a very important match for us.

"They are top of the table and we have to play well and compete, and see where we are."

Northants squad v Leicestershire: Procter (capt), Bartlett, Broad, Conway, Guthrie, Harrison, Keogh, McManus, Sales, Sanderson, Vasconcelos, Zaib