Shaw returns to squad for festival feast
12 July 2016
Twelve days of action at the College Ground gets underway on Wednesday when Gloucestershire host Division 2 leaders Essex in an attractive Championship fixture which could go a long way towards deciding the title.
Essex have a cushion of 18 points at the top of the table, but Gloucestershire do have a game in hand so a victory at Cheltenham would pull them into a challenging position.
Listen to the thoughts of head coach Richard Dawson here :
Squad :
After a glut of T20 fixtures, head coach Richard Dawson reverts to the bulk of the squad which he has picked from in most of the first class matches this summer.
Ian Cockbain and Matt Taylor drop out, and George Hankins won't be available now until the end of August after his call up to the England under 19's. Josh Shaw - who was recalled from his loan by parent club Yorkshire - is now back with Gloucestershire and is included in a squad of 13.
Roderick (c), Dent, Van Buuren, Klinger, Marshall, Tavare, J Taylor, Howell, Noema-Barnett, Payne, Norwell, Miles, Shaw.
Dawson said "We've got Essex and then Leicestershire in four day cricket at Cheltenham and it's a tight table so they are crucial games for us. Last year the wickets did a bit and they were result pitches. There will be something in them for both teams and we're going to have to play very well, and that means doing the basics as well as possible for as long as possible to put yourself in a decent position."
Essex have lost only once in the Championship this summer, and among their bowlers Jamie Porter, Graham Napier and Ravi Bopara have shared 99 wickets, but Dawson's clear that there is more to their team than that.
"They'll come hard at us because they have some good experienced players" he said. "We played them in the first game of the season at Chelmsford and were outplayed, so we've got to up our game from there. They have a decent bowling attack, and with Napier batting at number nine their batting is strong too but we won't take a backward step. We haven't done that all season, so it promises to be an exciting game."
Coverage :
You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @Gloscricket.
