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Players must show personal pride - Dawson

28 August 2018

Head coach Richard Dawson says his players must not let their exit from this season's Vitality T20 Blast at the quarter final stage dictate what happens for the rest of the season.

Gloucestershire turn the corner into the final phase of the summer on Wednesday with Leicestershire the visitors to the Brightside Ground for the first of five remaining games in Division 2 of the County Championship.

"The lads are representing the club and the supporters as well as themselves when they put the shirt on" said Dawson.  "You get in the side because of performance and you stay there for the same reason, chances won't be handed out on a plate."

"We've not got a big squad to pick from but it wasn't that long ago that Miles Hammond scored a century at Cheltenham. George Drissell bowled well there and got one wicket against Warwickshire last week in seam bowling friendly conditions. It was a tough debut for Ben Charlesworth as a 17 year old lad but he's made a couple of centuries opening the batting in the second XI so we slotted him into the team where Kieran Noema-Barnett would have been and there's every chance he'll have another game."

Noema-Barnett and Graeme van Buuren both saw specialists about their injuries on Tuesday and were not considered for selection. The squad of 12 shows one change from the side beaten at Edgbaston, with David Payne included in place of Jacob Lintott.

Squad :
Dent (c), Hammond, Bracey, Howell, Roderick, Higgins, Charlesworth, Miles, Drissell, Payne, M.Taylor, Liddle.

Leicestershire's season in Division 2 has been much improved compared to 2017, when they finished bottom of the table and failed to win a match. Gloucestershire beat them twice with Liam Norwell taking 10 wickets on each occasion, but four victories so far under new coach Paul Nixon sees them on the fringe of the promotion picture.

"I don't know what Paul has done but they've played some competitive cricket" Dawson added. "They have batsmen like Paul Horton, Mark Cosgrove, Neil Dexter and Colin Ackermann who have played a lot of county cricket, and their bowling attack has been taking 20 wickets. Mohammad Abbas and Ben Raine, backed up by Zak Chappell and Gavin Griffiths, is a good unit and if they bowl well it'll give them a chance so the lads will have to front up."

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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