Preview: Dawson retains same squad for Durham
20 April 2017
Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson has named an unchanged squad of 12 for the Specsavers Division 2 Championship match against Durham at the Brightside Ground, starting on Friday.
This is the last Championship match for a month as the group stages of the Royal London Cup take centre stage from next week, and Dawson felt there was no reason to disrupt the team that beat Leicestershire on Sunday.
"We grafted hard on the first day and then made it pay later on" he said. "We had spoken about the conditions at home and how on the first day in particular we needed to play them better than we have in the past, and that's what we did with contributions right down the order."
Squad :
Dent, Bancroft, Tavare, van Buuren, Hankins, Mustard (c), J.Taylor, Payne, Miles, Norwell, Liddle, Currill.
Liam Norwell's match figures of 10-99 against Leicestershire meant the match was over on the third evening, and Dawson hopes the extra day off will pay dividends.
"This is the third Championship game in three weeks which is a tough schedule, especially for the bowlers" he added. "We didn't get the boys in after we lost at Kent and it was the same on Monday because after this game we're into the 50 over matches and that's a busy period for us."
George Hankins was the one player to miss out with the bat against Leicestershire but his request to play in the second XI game against Yorkshire this week was justified with a century on Wednesday.
He'll return and go straight into a match which Dawson says the players should be excited about, especially considering the way the wickets at the Brightside Ground have played so far this season.
"The ground staff have done a great job with the pitches they've prepared and the one this week looks decent as well" he added. "Durham haven't played in Bristol for a long time (September 2003) and their side has played a lot of Division 1 cricket. If that's what you want to be doing on a regular basis then you have to take these challenges on."
"Their bowling attack has real talent in Wood, Onions and Rushworth, they have Jennings and Cook at the top of the order and Paul Collingwood in the middle. We've got to try and raise our performance again from the Leicestershire game. That's the nature of the division."
Durham, who lost to Nottinghamshire in the last round of matches, have named a squad of 13, captained by Paul Collingwood.
Durham squad :
Jennings, Cook, Steel, Clark, Richardson, Collingwood (c), Coughlin, Pringle, Poynter, Wood, Onions, Rushworth, Carse.
Coverage :
You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @Gloscricket
