Dent Looking To Put Injuries Behind HIm
22 November 2012
No Gloucestershire player is looking forward to next season more than Chris Dent after having his 2012 campaign ravaged by injury.
The former England Under-19 player had hopes of furthering his international career hampered by first a broken finger and then a dislocated shoulder.
Now Chris is fit again and approaching winter nets with the enthusiasm of a 21-year-old looking to make up for lost time.
He told this website: “I felt like I got off to a good start last season and was pleased with how things were going. I had set some personal goals and thought I was on my way to achieving them.
“Then I broke a finger in the match against Derbyshire at Bristol. It was the same finger I had broken against Glamorgan the previous season and I did it the same way, trying to take a catch.
“I needed surgery again so that put me out for a couple of months. Then, just after I started playing again and was getting some runs in the second XI, I dislocated a shoulder, diving in the field, and that ended my season.
“It was a freak injury only about three weeks after I had returned to action, I had another operation, which hopefully means it will not happen again, and my season was over.
“I am pretty much fully recovered now. The shoulder is feeling solid and I’m able to take part in training fully.”
After such wretched luck, Chris is looking forward to a change of fortune in 2013 and hopes to help Gloucestershire become a promotion force in the LV=County Championship Second Division.
“I’m really looking forward to next season,” he said. “I feel I can take confidence from how I started last summer and again I will have some targets.
“Having missed so much cricket this year, I have to regain my spot in the first team. I am working very hard at the moment and the aim will be to open the batting again.
“I can’t expect to be put straight back into the side, so I shall need some runs in the pre-season games. But if I can get a few scores before the opening Championship match I hope to be in contention.
“As a team we started last season quite well and it was a case of not maintaining sufficient consistency. I still have big personal ambitions and the better I play the more it will help the side get to where we want to be.
“I am hoping that if I have a big season I will be considered for the England Performance Squads. I felt I was on my way to making that happen when injury struck last summer and it remains a very important target.
“Everyone should have aspirations to play at the highest possible level and I certainly do.”
While many of his team-mates are playing in sunnier climes this winter, Chris is relishing the prospect of honing his game in the cold County Ground nets.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure what will be happening after Christmas, but the chances are I shall be staying at home this winter,” he said.
“That will give me a lot of time to work on different aspects of my game. I stayed here last winter and felt I got better as a player, as well as fitter and stronger, so I’m happy to be at the ground each day working hard.
“At the moment I am mainly working on technical things with both my batting and my bowling.
“Facing short bowling is key in the first class game so we are all doing a lot with the bowling machine in an effort to deal more effectively with the short ball.
“We do two-hour sessions at a time, so it is quite testing. You have to be disciplined and concentrate hard all the time.”
