Brian Foxall is hopeful of a T20 shock against Birmingham Bears

The Cats will be major underdogs against the Bears, the new name adopted by Warwickshire for the NatWest T20 Blast competition, in the friendly at Cricket Meadow which will feature several big names.

The match will be the Bears' final warm-up game ahead of their opening T20 clash against Yorkshire Vikings two days later, and the 13-strong squad will feature stars such as Varun Chopra, England's Boyd Rankin and New Zealand spinner Jeetan Patel.

But Shropshire have proved competitive in annual friendlies against Worcestershire in recent years and, asked about the hosts' chances of springing an upset, Foxall said: "In T20 anything can happen.

"We have to be aware that Warwickshire are a team near the top of the (County Championship) first division whereas Worcestershire are still playing their cricket in the second division.

"So we have to be realistic that we will be hard-pressed to beat them, but in T20 anything can happen.

Regarding the biggest threats in the Bears' squad, he added: "Varun Chopra, the opening batsman is a nice player, He will be captain. Jeetan Patel is an excellent all-round player.

"Those are the two stand outs although we will also have to be wary of their quick bowling.

"I don't know which of their bowlers will play but when you are looking at people like Keith Barker, possibly Boyd Rankin and Chris Wright, it is quite a formidable line-up."

The game is expected to attract a bumper crowd and Foxall hopes the Bears' squad, which will also include Will Porterfield, Laurie Evans, Ateeq Javid, Paul Best, Tim Ambrose, Richard Jones, Jonathan Webb and Freddie Coleman, is likely to swell the numbers further.

He said: "There has been a lot of interest shown through Bridgnorth Cricket Club as well as through ourselves and I think if it is decent weather we are anticipating something in the region of 500 people."