News

Everyone's in the picture - Dawson

17 May 2018

Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson says all of his first team squad have a genuine chance to make an impression in this season's Royal London Cup when the tournament gets underway with a trip to Cardiff on Friday (11.00).

The match with Glamorgan is the first of eight pool games in the South Group, which has the same teams in it as in 2017 but with the home and away fixtures having been reversed.

Gloucestershire have to finish in the first three places to make the knockout stages - something they didn't do last year - and Dawson acknowledged that to do so the team must play smart and positive cricket.

"There are a lot of strong sides in the South Group who played a decent standard of cricket last year, and sometimes we went into our shell when I would have liked us to back ourselves a bit more, especially with the bat" Dawson said. "There is a difference between positive and reckless. It's not a question of trying to score 400, it's more about the intent you play with."

His first squad selection - without the option of picking Liam Norwell or David Payne because of injury - includes Ian Cockbain, Chris Liddle and Tom Smith, all of whom were regulars in the Royal London Cup last season, but who have yet to play in the County Championship in 2018. There is also a place for George Hankins and a call up for Miles Hammond, who signed a new 12 month contract during the winter.

"All those lads have been playing white ball cricket in the second XI when we've had Championship games so they've been working on their white ball skills - no one is out of the picture" Dawson added. "Everyone is in contention and we'll pick the final eleven as we see fit."

Squad :

Dent (c), Hankins, Howell, Roderick, Cockbain, J.Taylor, Higgins, van Buuren, Smith, Worrall, Liddle, M.Taylor, Hammond.

Gloucestershire travel to Sophia Cardens off the back of a battling draw against Middlesex at Lord's in which James Bracey made his second Championship hundred of the season, and Richard Dawson was in doubt what that had done for morale ahead of Friday's match..

"We finished the game on a massive high, having not performed as well as we wanted to on the first two days. The boys banked a lot of credit for securing the draw having been in a similar position against Glamorgan and lost."

"We go to Cardiff with our all rounders giving us options and flexibility depending on Friday's pitch. We've not been there this year and some of the wickets we've played on so far have been slow because of the weather we've had. History suggests the one there might be not dissimilar to Bristol although it might spin a bit more, but we'll see. It would be nice to get the first win straight away. We did it in the Championship against Kent and that will be our goal in this competition as well. "

Coverage :

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

Ball by ball commentary is also available on the BBC Sport website.

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