Ed Foster will make his return to Shropshire’s Minor Counties Championship side tomorrow – after suffering a fresh blow to his hopes of forging a First Class career.Shrewsbury ace Foster was released by Leicestershire yesterday after spending the first half of the season with the Grace Road club.

The left-handed batsman has been a regular in the Foxes second XI, but has failed to break into the first team during his three months in the East Midlands.

“It’s obviously disappointing but I hadn’t really done as well as I had hoped for in the last few weeks,” said the 23-year-old, who previously had a stint with Worcestershire.

“I started the season really well but I’ve been in a bit of a trough recently and haven’t had too much luck.

“If another county gets in contact with me I will be interested, but I will have to think about the future in the coming weeks.”

Foster’s release means he will be available to play as a wicketkeeper-batsman for Shropshire as they attempt to put their Western Division campaign back on track by defeating Wiltshire at Bridgnorth in a three-day game which gets under way tomorrow.

A sub-standard performance, culminating in a second innings batting collapse, in their last outing at Cornwall has left Shropshire in fifth place in the table and with little room for error if they harbour realistic championship ambitions.

“We are in the pack so we need to win this game to get back into it,” said skipper James Ralph.

“We need to roll our sleeves up a bit more than we did in Cornwall.

“Bridgnorth is a great place to play cricket so hopefully it will bring the best out of us.”

The action at Cricket Meadow starts at 11am.

By James Garrison