News

Dawson targets core skills at winless Derbyshire

30 August 2016

Gloucestershire enter the final lap of their Championship season at Derby on Wednesday with head coach Richard Dawson looking for his players to show more of the form that took the team firmly into the promotion picture a month ago.

Defeats to Sussex and Kent in the last two games have dropped Gloucestershire back into mid table, and Dawson says for some of his squad dealing with two heavy defeats on the trot is a new experience.

"As a group we're generally young without masses of first class experience and some of them have not gone through what you would call a bad trot in their careers" he said.

"What Ian Harvey and I are trying to help them with is not only their cricket but their emotions, getting them back on their feet quickly and putting in performances. How quickly you do that contributes to your own career as an individual and also the team doing well."

Dawson makes two changes to the squad selected for last week's match against Kent, with England under 19's batsman George Hankins replacing Michael Klinger after his return to Australia, and the fit again Josh Shaw coming in for Ollie Currill.

"We had a chat with George after he played in five games earlier in the season before we left him out" Dawson went on. "We felt he had things to work on and he's been away and played a decent standard of cricket with the Under 19's against Sri Lanka when he was given the Player of the Series in the ODI's. Now is an opportunity for him to have another crack in the first team and show he's learned from those earlier games."

Squad :
Roderick (c), Dent, Tavare, Marshall, Hankins, Mustard, J.Taylor, Miles, Payne, Norwell, M.Taylor, Shaw.

Opponents Derbyshire have not had the best of summers. They failed to reach the knockout stages in either of the limited overs competitions, and are still without a win in the Championship having drawn nine games and lost four. Bowlers Ben Cotton and Will Davis could return after injury but all rounder Shiv Thakor, who tops their batting averages, is out for the rest of the season after suffering a stress fracture in his back.

"The challenge for the team is to understand how we can get back to putting together big partnerships and bowling tightly, which we were doing early in the season" added Dawson.

"In both cases it's about controlling the scoreboard, and not necessarily scoring lots of runs or taking lots of wickets quickly. In the last two games we haven't achieved either. I know Derbyshire haven't won a game but their dressing room will look at our last three results and see this as an opportunity. What I want to see from our boys is that they have learned from the last few weeks."

Coverage :
You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @Gloscricket.

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