After reading many good and inspiring stories I have finally decided to do my first county story, I randomly put all the Division 2 county names in a hat and out came Gloucestershire, They have been in Division 2 for a long time now but I remember in the 90's they were a formidable one day side, names like Alleyne, Russell and Ian Harvey spring to mind.
I am going for a 3 year plan to get promoted to Division 1, the 1st season will be an assessment of the current squad with no new signings.
SQUAD
Club Captain – Chris Dent
T20 Captain – Michael Klinger
BATSMAN | ALL ROUNDERS | BOWLERS | KEEPERS | OVERSEAS |
Chris Dent | Miles Hammond | Oliver Currill | Gareth Roderick | Dan Worrall (Main Overseas) |
Will Tavare | Ryan Higgins | George Drissell | James Bracey | Michael Klinger (T20) |
George Hankins | Benny Howell | Chris Liddle | Andrew Tye (T20) | |
Ian Cockbain | Jack Taylor | Craig Miles | Tissara Perera (T20) | |
Kieran Noema Barnett | Liam Norwell | |||
Graeme Van Buuren | David Payne | |||
Matt Taylor | ||||
Tom Smith | ||||
Looking at the squad it is very Bowler/All Rounder heavy with a lack of specialist Batsman, looking at last year’s stats, only Chris Dent got anywhere near 1000 runs with Jack Taylor and Will Tavare the other top scorers, I will be hoping for Roderick and Van Buuren to perform better this season, Ian Cockbain who is normally a one day specialist will be playing 4 Day cricket this season.
Liam Norwell was the top wicket taker last season, and with support from promising young seamer Craig Miles and overseas player Dan Worrall we should have a competitive attack in Division 2, injured David Payne should be back mid season. Van Buuren and Benny Howell will be expected to chip in with the ball too, it will be interesting to see how young all rounder Ryan Higgins performs as there is a lot of talk about him IRL on the county circuit.
I will be preparing seam friendly wickets at home for the 4 day games.
Eleven for University Match.
1. Dent (Capt)
2. Tavare
3. Cockbain
4. Roderick (Wkt)
5.Van Buuren
6.Howell
7.Taylor J
8.Higgins
9.Miles
10.Norwell
11.Worrall
This I think is my best eleven, the only decision to ponder was the No.8 spot where hard hitting kiwi Noema Barnett occupied last season, but I have decided to give young Ryan Higgins a run for the first round of championship matches.
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