Will's Incentive To Score Big Against Leicestershire
8 September 2014
Will Tavaré will be hoping to take another step towards marking his debut season in county cricket with 1,000 first class runs this week.
The 24-year-old Bristolian goes into the penultimate LV=County Championship game at home to Leicestershire, starting on Tuesday 9 September, with a tally of 890, the highest by a Gloucestershire batsman this summer.
Will is averaging over 40 and has potentially four more innings in which to score the 110 runs he needs to reach four figures.
Whatever happens, it has been a season to remember for the batsman, who began it by scoring 139 on his Championship debut against Hampshire at Bristol.
He followed that with hundreds against Essex at the County Ground and Derbyshire at Cheltenham, while also scoring half-centuries against Surrey, Glamorgan and Hampshire.
In all, Will has scored 829 runs in the Championship. The remaining 61 in his first class tally came from innings of 37 and 24 in the match against Cardiff MCCU at the Bristol County Ground.
Gloucestershire Director of Cricket, John Bracewell, has been suitably impressed. “Will has shown not only the ability, but also the temperament to succeed in the first class game,” he said.
“He has made runs in difficult situations, which is the measure of a good player, demonstrating a real maturity at the top of the order.”
Will, who originally signed just for this season, was rewarded with a three-year contract in July. He has played mainly four-day cricket so far, but intends challenging for a place in all formats next summer.
Gloucestershire will be seeking their fourth Championship win of the season against bottom club Leicestershire, who have yet to record a victory in the competition.
Alex Gidman is the other home batsman with sights set on 1,000 first class runs. He is on 824 going into the match.
Will Gidman is comfortably the leading wicket-taker with 40 first class victims and also boasts 737 runs at an average of 49.13 in what will be his final season with Gloucestershire.
Gloucestershire Squad from : Chris Dent | Will Tavaré | Gareth Roderick |
Alex Gidman | Hamish Marshall | Ian Cockbain | Will Gidman | Tom Smith
Craig Miles | Liam Norwell | David Payne | Benny Howell
Leicestershire Squad from: Greg Smith | Angus Robson | Ned Eckersley |
Matthew Boyce | Dan Redfern | Josh Cobb | Niall O'Brien | Rob Taylor |
Jigar Naik | Ollie Freckingham | Charlie Shreck | Atif Sheikh | Alex Wyatt
