PREVIEW: Bancroft and Tavare return for red ball resumption

25 May 2017

Top order batsmen Cameron Bancroft and Will Tavare return to the Gloucestershire squad when Championship cricket resumes on Friday with a trip to play Division 2 leaders Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire are streaming the game live via their website - click here to watch the match live.

Neither were involved in the Royal London Cup, but they now replace Michael Klinger and Ian Cockbain as Gloucestershire head to Trent Bridge for the first time since 2007. Liam Norwell is unavailable because of some soreness in his back so Matt Taylor could play in the Championship for the first time this season.

Squad:

Bancroft, Dent, Tavare, van Buuren, Hankins, Mustard (c), J.Taylor. Noema-Barnett, Miles, Liddle, M.Taylor, Currill.

Head coach Richard Dawson said "We had a chat on Wednesday about how we had come back from the defeat to Kent and done well against Leicestershire and Durham, and how we must take heart from those games and work with it. There is a change of pace in the game now after the 50 over competition and a change in some personnel, but above all we need to be switched on and nail down certain things with bat and ball."

Nottinghamshire have made a strong start to the season with wins in each of their first three Championship games, and it looked like being four victories in a row until the Glamorgan pair of Colin Ingram and Chris Cooke batted throughout the final day of the match in Cardiff to force a draw. It was a stoic effort, and one that offered Dawson some encouragement.

"Notts are a pretty attacking team with a lot of experience and some serious players" he went on. "They dominated their early matches but Glamorgan slowed the pace of the game down in their second innings and really made them work. The biggest challenge for us is to play the game as we want to. You must play the ball and not the batsman or bowler you are up against. Durham had some players with good reputations but against them we managed that well, and although we know this will be a challenge we also know we have played some good four day cricket."

Nottinghamshire are without Alex Hales and Jake Ball, who are both with the England squad for the one day series against South Africa, but Stuart Broad is available and they have also recruited the Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara as their overseas player after  fast bowler James Pattinson was named in Australia's Champions Trophy squad.

It left an opening for Brett Hutton, who is again likely to feature at Trent Bridge, and Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores was satisfied with the former England Under 19 international's first appearance of the season.

"I thought Brett batted well and showed versatility with the ball, pitching it up and swinging it and also mixing it up by banging it in short" he said.

"Gloucestershire are one of quite a few sides we haven't played recently but we've spent the whole season focusing on what we are doing so that won't change. "We'll respect them but we'll mainly be concerned about how we go about the game."

Coverage :

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

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