50 Over Format Will Suit Us Says Bracewell
13 December 2013
John Bracewell is confident of a strong showing from Gloucestershire in List A cricket next season following the change to a 50-over competition.
While the club’s director of cricket was a fan of the 40-over tournament, he feels the extra ten overs per side and the use of two white balls, one from each end, in the new Royal London Cup will play to his side’s strengths.
John told this website: “With each ball only being used for 25 overs, they will stay harder for longer, which will suit a genuine seamer like Will Gidman.
“That brings one more bowler into play, who we didn’t use much in one-day cricket last season, and it should strengthen our attack.
“The games being longer will also suit our batting style because we are not a power hitting side.
“While we do have some power, we tend to want to manoeuvre the ball around the park and our ratio of fours is much higher than our sixes count.
“The extra ten overs will be to our benefit and I expect us to be very competitive in the competition.”
Gloucestershire’s first Royal London Cup fixture will be at the Cheltenham Festival against Northamptonshire on Sunday July 27.
Also in their group are Yorkshire, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Essex, Lancashire, Worcestershire and Derbyshire, but not Somerset, which means the West country rivals will only meet in Twenty20 cricket.
The 50-over games will start at 10.45am and John believes the longer format will take a toll on players’ fitness as the competition progresses.
“We will need to target players for certain formats because we cannot expect them all to play what can amount to six days a week once T20 gets underway,” he said.
“With such a small squad, we will need to be very careful about selection and make full use of our personnel.
“The extra 20 overs in a day that are involved in the Royal London Cup will take a toll over the season and I will be looking to rotate our bowlers to try and keep them as fresh as possible for when they are needed.”
