Dawson expects Worrall to have major impact
29 March 2018
Richard Dawson expects new overseas signing Dan Worrall to have a major impact on Gloucestershire’s cricket this summer.
The 26-year-old seamer will fly in from Australia next week in time for the start of the Specsavers County Championship a fortnight today (Friday).
Head coach Dawson is excited at the prospect of working with a new strike bowler in both four-day cricket and the Royal London One-Day Cup
He said: “Dan bowls a full length, ideal for English conditions, and hits the deck hard. He made a strong finish to his domestic season with South Australia, has taken 30-odd wickets in the Sheffield Shield, and is clearly in good form.
“It’s a great signing for us. Dan is keen to improve his game by experiencing conditions over here and comes highly recommended by our Australian connections, including Michael Klinger.
“It should help that the Aussies have been using the Duke ball since Christmas, the same as over here, and he has had a good deal of success with it.
“That’s another positive for us and I am very hopeful that Dan will be an excellent addition to our attack.”
Worrall has the ability to swing the ball both ways at good pace and appears ideally suited to early-season conditions in the Championship.
His best season in the Sheffield Shield in 2015-16 saw him finish second leading wicket-taker with 44 at an average of 26.18.
The ambitious Worrall is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Gloucestershire’s T20 overseas player Andrew Tye, who first joined the county two seasons ago and at the age of 31 and has since become an important member of Australia’s team in the shortest format.
Tye, who is returning to Bristol for this summer’s Vitality Blast competition, did not make his debut for Western Australia until he was 26 and made his first international three years later.
For the second successive season, Dawson’s men start their Championship campaign with a tough trip to play Kent at Canterbury, starting on Friday April 13, and the head coach wants his players fully tuned up by then.
“We want to start the season well, which is something we haven’t been doing,” he said. “Kent are a good side and they beat us last year in the corresponding fixture, so it’s important we prepare well.”
Liam Norwell is making good progress towards recovery from a hamstring injury and Dawson expects last season’s leading wicket-taker to be available for the opening Championship game.
But left-arm seamer David Payne will be an absentee following surgery on an ankle and is expected to miss the first two months of the season.
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