We Have Right Mix For T20 - Klinger
27 June 2013
Michael Klinger believes Gloucestershire should be full of confidence going into their Friends Life t20 opener against Northants at Northampton on Friday evening.
The skipper has been hugely encouraged by performances in the Yorkshire Bank 40 this season, which have seen his team challenge for top position in Group C.
Now Michael is looking for continuity as the players look to adapt to the thrills and spills of Twenty20.
He told this website: “If we go on what we have produced in 40-over cricket this summer, we should certainly be excited by the T20 competition.
“Our form in the shorter format has been really good and there is no reason why we can’t take that into the 20-over games.
“We need to keep working on executing our skills and have had a few practice matches this week with that in mind.
“I think we now have the right mix for T20, with an extra power hitter in Dan Christian coming into the middle order.
“And we look capable of batting down to eight or nine, as our keepers have been scoring runs and James Fuller is looking useful further down.”
Gloucestershire’s team against Northants will not include either Craig Miles or Miles Hammond, who have performed so well in the LV=County Championship this season.
Miles is under treatment, while the club have signed left-armer Tom Smith from Middlesex to take on the spin duties in the absence of Ed Young and Jack Taylor.
Michael said: “Craig has complained of some soreness in a heel during our last couple of four-day games.
“We have a couple of Championship games at Cheltenham during the T20 so we need to manage him and make sure he is right for them.
“Miles has not been ruled out of our T20 plans entirely. There may be games where we want to play two spinners if we come across really dry pitches so he will be in the mix for selection.
“There is a concern about throwing him in at such a young age, but he has already had a taste of first class cricket and if we have an opportunity to play a second spinner he will definitely come into contention.”
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