ANDY MCBRINE will skipper the North West Warriors in their opening clash of the Newstalk Inter-Provincial Series against Leinster Lightning at The Hills on Saturday (10:45am).

The Irish international took over the captain's armband from Iftikhar Hussain towards the culmination of the inaugural campaign, and led the side to their only win in the competition, a 50 over win which denied Lightning a clean sweep on the last day of the tournament.

"Andy retains the captaincy and his desire to train hard and play hard rubs off on the team," said Warriors coach Bobby Rao. "The boys have put in a lot of work over the past 12 months and they have deserved better than the results we have had," added the former Indian Test star.

"We're now starting to get the balance right although we know we have to perform much better with the bat this time".

"We have tried to keep changes to a minimum but both Johnny Thompson and Ricky-Lee Dougherty come into the squad that won at Strabane Park to replace Ross Allen and Gareth Burns".

The Warriors had a number of star performers in league action at the weekend, with David Rankin scoring a match winning hundred for Bready at Donemana, and Johnny Thompson an unbeaten 95 which helped Brigade to victory.

NORTH WEST WARRIORS squad:

Andy McBrine (captain) (Donemana), Brian Allen (Fox Lodge), David Barr (Bready), Ricky-Lee Dougherty (Donemana), Iftikhar Hussain (Fox Lodge), Niall McDonnell (Coleraine), Jason Milligan (Fox Lodge), David Rankin (Bready), Andrew Riddles (Ardmore), Johnny Thompson Brigade), Stuart Thompson (Eglinton), Craig Young (Bready).