Tom Smith will get his tenure as Lancashire Lightning captain underway with a T20 match against our Pennine neighbours Yorkshire Vikings in Dubai.

The all-rounder, who was unveiled as the skipper for all formats earlier this month, will lead the team during their pre-season tour of the UAE and Sri Lanka.

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Lightning will play a warm-up match in Dubai before taking on the Vikings in the semi-final of the Emirates Airline T20 Cup at the Sevens Ground on Friday 20 March.

The winners of this tie will then take on the victors of the other semi-final which will be contested between an MCC XI and Sussex Sharks.

Vice Captain Steven Croft admits the lads cannot wait to play some cricket outdoors .

He said: “We’ve got three weeks left in our indoor school. It’s a great facility but we all can’t wait to get outside and on the turf and in the sun  to play some cricket.

“It will be good to play Yorkshire first up. It would be nice to get an early marker out and it’s always a great cup to play in out in Dubai. Hopefully we can get our first win under the belt.”

Squad for the tour to Dubai: Tom Bailey, Karl Brown, Nathan Buck, Jordan Clark, Steven Croft, Alex Davies (Wicketkeeper), Paul Horton, Kyle Jarvis, Simon Kerrigan, Arron Lilley, Liam Livingstone, Stephen Parry, Luis Reece, Tom Smith (Captain).