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PREVIEW: Sussex selection is no seaside shuffle

25 June 2017

Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson has kept faith with the team which drew with Nottinghamshire at the Brightside Ground for Monday's Championship match against Sussex at Hove.

Liam Norwell is fit again and makes the squad, but his potential inclusion would mean only a maximum of one change to the side. Phil Mustard will continue as captain, with Gareth Roderick keeping wicket in one of nine day-night Championship matches. It's also possible that both Will Tavare and Craig Miles could play their 50th first class match.

Squad:

Dent, Bancroft, Tavare, Roderick (wk), van Buuren, Mustard (c), J.Taylor, Noema-Barnett, Miles, Payne, Liddle, Norwell.

The experiment of floodlit four day cricket - the only other game was in 2011 - means a 2pm start and a pink ball, so there's been a lot for head coach Richard Dawson to contend with in preparation for facing a side who have won their last two Championship matches.

"We've practised over the last week with the pink ball, which isn't like a conventional red one and the bowlers have said it doesn't really swing or shine up as much" Dawson said. "It means the lads out in the middle are going to have to make some calls if the shine has gone and we want to keep asking questions of the batsmen. I can offer guidance from what I see but the leaders in the team have to take responsibility and problem solve pretty sharply."

Sussex will be captained for the first time by wicket keeper Ben Brown, who took over the role after Luke Wright decided to stand down as skipper.

Chris Jordan returns to their squad after England duty and in Joffra Archer they have a bowler who Richard Dawson admits has a growing reputation having taken 35 Championship wickets already this season at 23 runs apiece.

"He's an exciting talent who bowls quickly and can make runs down the order" Dawson said. "He had just come into their team when we played at Hove last year and we certainly want to improve on that performance. The final day against Nottinghamshire wasn't easy and we scrapped hard for the draw but this will be a different challenge. They have Chris Nash at the top of the order, Luke Wells has some made some big scores recently, Luke Wright is still there too and even without Steve Magoffin they have a good bowling unit."

With a busy schedule to start at Cheltenham College on July 3rd, Dawson confirmed that loanee Josh Shaw would play some second XI cricket this week, also against Sussex, to retain some sharpness ahead of the Festival. The crowds there are often greater than for your average Championship day, and the ECB will no doubt be intrigued this week to see the response of the public to late finishes up and down the country.

Coverage :

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

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