Higgins relishing return of the red ball
8 June 2018
All rounder Ryan Higgins came to Gloucestershire this season with a reputation as a one day player, but five wicket hauls in two of his first four Championship matches make him keen to pick up a red ball again as four day cricket resumes when Kent come to the Brightside Ground in Division 2 on Saturday (11.00am).
Higgins took 5-22 in the victory at Canterbury which started the season, but since then - despite only taking a solitary batting point - Kent have beaten Durham, Glamorgan and Sussex to sit second in the table behind Warwickshire, and Higgins is in no doubt as to why that is.
"They have a strong bowling side with Darren Stevens still performing well and Matt Henry having taken 37 wickets already" Higgins said. "We saw in the Royal London Cup that they can be a good white ball team, and they are challenging to get into Division 1 in the Championship too so I'm looking forward to facing them and if we can beat them it will be a good sign for us."
"Personally I cannot wait to bowl again with the red ball, and try to find ways of getting people out on what will probably be a flat pitch. That's how it was when we played Glamorgan at home but I'm confident the wickets will come if I am patient."
Higgins took the new ball in two of the Royal London Cup matches and the chances of him doing so again will depend on how head coach Richard Dawson balances his selection. Two players who didn't feature in the Royal London Cup - James Bracey and Keiran Noema-Barnett - return to a squad of 13, and after being the leading run scorer in the 50 over competition, George Hankins is in contention for his first Championship appearance of the season as is young off spinner George Drissell, who made his List A debut against Middlesex on Wednesday.
Squad :
Dent (c), Howell, Roderick, Bracey, Hankins, J.Taylor, van Buuren, Noema-Barnett, Higgins, Miles, Liddle, Drissell, M.Taylor.
While Kent have a Royal London Cup play off against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge to look forward to next week, Gloucestershire resume their white ball cricket in the Vitality Blast T20 in July, and despite winning only two of their five completed matches in the longer one day format Higgins feels the team was competitive throughout.
"It was little spells that cost us, periods of maybe four overs here or there where we let teams dictate things too much" said Higgins. "The positive for me was that we played a lot more good cricket than bad cricket. A lot of the guys fired with the bat, and while it felt hard to get wickets if we can do better in those key moments I think we can be a real force over the next couple of years."
The group finished with back to back games in which two opposition players made hundreds - Heino Kuhn and Joe Denly for Saturday's opponents in the Championship, and then Eoin Morgan and Paul Stirling for Middlesex. Higgins made 65 against Middlesex and feels that game summed up the way the tournament went.
"If you take the game close to the end at Bristol you always give yourselves a chance to fire and hit sixes to the short leg side boundary" Higgins concluded. "Ian Cockbain and I said if we could get to the last ten overs needing 100 we would back ourselves. We got into that position (93 runs were needed) and then I got a good ball from Helm trying to take the positive option. On another day it could have gone differently."
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
