PREVIEW: Roderick and Payne tied in for Notts
8 June 2017
Gloucestershire welcome David Payne and Gareth Roderick back into the first team squad for the Division 2 Championship match against leaders Nottinghamshire which starts at the Brightside Ground on Friday.
Payne missed the whole of the Royal London Cup campaign and last month's defeat in the reverse fixture with a hernia which required an operation, while illness has kept Roderick out of first team cricket since the friendly against Cardiff MCCU back in March.
Liam Norwell's back injury is improving but the match is too early for him to be included in a squad of 13.
Squad:
Bancroft, Dent, Tavare, Roderick, van Buuren, Hankins, Mustard, J.Taylor, Noema-Barnett, Miles, Payne, M.Taylor, Liddle
Head coach Richard Dawson said "Both players have got experience so to have them fit is a huge plus. David's played some one day cricket in the second XI and also had a decent net session at the ground on Tuesday. His surgery went well and he's done everything he should have done to get himself back and available. With Gareth, we've given him some time to make sure he is right. He was ill at the start of the season and it's taken him a while to get going."
Dawson confirmed that Roderick's unbeaten 170 in a second XI game against Worcestershire at Cheltenham last week showed he was heading in the right direction, and his inclusion increases the batting options against a Nottinghamshire attack that bowled Gloucestershire out twice to win by an innings when the sides met at Trent Bridge.
"Nothing should come as a surprise" Dawson went on. "We've got to be up for a contest because they rarely give you any easy balls when you are batting, and if you miss your mark as a bowler you will be punished. "
Gloucestershire's best two Championship performances have come in the home games against Leicestershire and Durham, and Dawson conceded those standards need to be reached again, particularly with the bat.
"We made over 400 against Leicestershire and over 300 against Durham, but in our two away games we've not scored over 150 in the first innings" he added. "Phil Mustard has played a lot in Division 1 and he asked the team to take lessons from what the Nottinghamshire players did against us."
"We spoke as a group in pre-season about being in the contest at the half way stage when we play in Bristol. We know conditions change over the course of a game and it's been wet so it'll be interesting to see what the pitch is like."
Coverage :
You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @Gloscricket
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