Gloucestershire 2021 Preview

 

Gloucestershire 2021 Preview

March 27^th 2021

The brief pre-season is ending. On Monday, Gloucestershire’s 2021 pre-season finishes with a non-First Class, three-day friendly match against Exeter University, before Surrey visit Bristol on April 8^th to launch the Championship season.

The 2020 season was a pretty strange one. For a long time it looked as if their might not be a 2020 domestic season at all but, finally, after many doubts, we got a new competition – the Bob Willis Trophy – and a reduced T20 Blast. The Bob Willis Trophy was a great success. Regional Conferences, followed by a Final. Local derbies guaranteed. Middlesex supporters knew that two of their five games would be against rivals Surrey and Essex, despite having been left behind them in Division 2. Yorkshire and Lancashire would meet for northern bragging rights (in their opinion the other four sides in the Group were pretty nearly irrelevant). And, in Wales and the West, games against Somerset and Glamorgan would excite those around the Bristol area, while the fans in Gloucester and Cheltenham saw Worcestershire as their great local rivals. Yes, the Bob Willis Trophy had much to recommend it, particularly in the way that Division 1 and Division 2 sides were mixed, allowing fixtures that had not been seen for many years. The only criticism that you could make was that there should have been Semi-Finals too, with the three Group winners and the best second place side disputing them. 

A difficult 2020 red-ball season, but T20 success

How do you classify the Gloucestershire 2020 season? Any season in which you reach Finals Day is a good one, isn’t it? In reality though, the T20 run served mainly to soften some of the memories of a disappointing red-ball campaign that produced some highs, but rather more lows. And 2020 saw Gloucestershire unfairly ridiculed in national media questioning their right even to be considered a First Class side, let alone a Division 1 side, which, less we forget, they are.

The writing was on the wall in pre-season. Somerset absolutely steamrollered a team missing a few players – and innings and plenty was the margin – and then, in the Bob Willis Trophy match, dismissed Gloucestershire for 68 and 70 to win by a mere 315 runs. It was hard to remember that, after a heavy opening  defeat to Worcestershire, Gloucestershire had beaten Warwickshire and should have beaten Glamorgan. In a rain-shortened match the Shire reduced Glamorgan to 121-7 soon after Lunch on the last day and in desperate trouble. It was, though, a repeating pattern that the attack could not finish-off opponents. Glamorgan batted almost two sessions for a draw, losing just one more wicket in the process. Then, Somerset were in trouble at 176-9 and reached 237ao.  Even in the first match, Worcestershire were 223-2 after two days and 62 of their 100 overs and the match was still in the balance: they finished their innings at 428-5, with a huge lead, having treated the last 10 overs of their allotment of 100 as a T20 run chase.  So often it was a case of what might have been had the bowlers been able to take one more wicket. 

In the case of the Somerset match, there was also the suspicion that the attack had bowled itself into the ground against Glamorgan and that an exhausted side would have nothing more to give. Where other sides could rotate their attack without losing potency, Gloucestershire had to keep squeezing the same few front-line bowlers until they had nothing more to give.

However, once the whites and the red balls were packed away, the side were transformed. It was a bit like watching Popeye. Bluto would give him the most hideous beating and then, suddenly, out would come the spinach and the tables were turned. In the case of Gloucestershire, the spinach was a white ball and coloured pyjamas. They had a wonderful Blast campaign, only de-railed on Finals Day by having to bat first when conditions were at their most difficult. Up until then it was so easily possible to imagine the Shire lifting the trophy.

 The issues with the playing squad

The issues in the Bob Willis Trophy were not new. In the absence of Dan Worrall, the attack lacked depth, as witnessed by the inability to finish-off opponents. David Payne and Ryan Higgins were a decent new ball attack, Matt Taylor had his days, but there was too little to back them up, meaning that Higgins and Payne were almost always bowled too much and sides could recover while they rested. Josh Shaw is a good fourth seamer who has bowled some excellent spells, but is not ready to bowl as first change. There is the long-time lack of a spinner who can hold an end up for a whole session and attack for wickets when the wicket turns. And, the batting was too often fragile when Chris Dent got out. 

It is the old story of a County with a small playing squad that loses its best players regularly to wealthier teams. The frequent cry is that there is not enough money in the West to ensure sporting success, yet after a disastrous initial return to the English Premiership and a long purgatory in the Championship, Bristol Bears rugby turned a season of survival into a top-three finish and now bestride the Premiership with such authority that it will take a titanic collapse  for them not to be Champions. In fact, of the twelve English Premiership teams, Bristol, Bath, Gloucester and Worcester are all in the West and Exeter, the Southwest. Money is there in the West for elite sport, at least in rugby.

 Looking forward to the 2021 County Championship

What will 2021 bring? For a start, it provides yet another one-off Championship format. 

·       Three groups of 6, seeded according to 2019 Championship final positions, with minor adjustments to allow local derbies when they do not affect the seedings significantly. 

o   We see this  in Gloucestershire’s group. Hampshire, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Somerset and Surrey make up a powerful-looking group, with two pairs of strong local rivalries.

·        Each team to play the others in its group, home and away.

·        The top two in each group will play four more games, as Division 1, two home and two away against the top two in the other groups, with the winners of the division crowned County Champions.

·       The 3^rd and 4^th placed sides in each group will play the equivalent teams from the other groups in Division 2 and the 5^th and 6^th placed sides in each group will form Division 3.

Gloucestershire, seeded fourth in their group, will need a remarkable turnaround in fortunes to manage a top-two finish (but then, who would have predicted the success of Derbyshire and Middlesex in 2020?) A solid, mid-table finish and avoiding the humiliation of a demotion to Division 3 will be the aim of the season, even if one suspects that the squad is, once again, far better-suited to the white-ball game than to the red. 

The 2021 Squad

The playing staff are little changed in 2021. Dan Worrall returns and Jared Warner joins the staff

Bowling options:

Back in 2016, Dan Worrell looked like being potentially a new star for Australia. Three ODIs and a fine reputation made promotion to the Test side look likely, but he has been injury-plagued since (foot fracture, two back injuries and a hamstring problem) and has fallen out of contention. No longer a promising young quick – he turns 30 in mid-season – 2021 will be an important season for him. He knows that he can expect a lot of bowling for Gloucestershire and, if he has any hope of further international honours, needs to make his mark now. The good news is that he has managed to play a fair amount of cricket already in 2021: 41 overs for South Australia against New South Wales and 44 against Western Australia, almost bowling is side to victory on the last day in the latter match. Apart from that, he has played a number of Big Bash and 50-over matches. He looks fit and up for the challenge.

Now that he is no longer in the Australian set-up, he can play the full season in all formats, which will test his body. Gloucestershire fans know that if he can stay fit and if he can show the form that he showed in flashes in past seasons, he will fix at least one of the existing problems in the attack.

The other bowling change with respect to 2020 might just fix another problem. Warner has been a Yorkshire 2^nd XI fixture but, despite two loan periods at Sussex, has little 1^st XI experience. A Division 2 debut for Sussex, early in the 2019 season, provided his best bowling figures of 3-35, before a second game for Sussex in 2020 saw him playing a bit-part as second change, while Ollie Robinson laid waste to Middlesex. A First Class debut followed for Yorkshire in a rain-affected Roses match in which, once again, he had little to do. Warner is well thought of as a seamer and could be competing for a place with Josh Shaw, providing injury cover and much-needed depth in the seam reserves and encouragement to both to pull out a bit extra to seal their place in the side.

More disappointingly, the only change in the spin department – the third problem with the Gloucestershire attack – is a departure. George Drissell, still only 22, has been released after struggling to make much of an impact. A weak 2^nd XI campaign in 2020 seems to have convinced management that he will not make it at the top level, while the progress made by Tom Smith in 2020 has given him a vice-like grip on the #1 spinner spot. A career average of 50 will have to come down substantially if Tom Smith is to become an attacking option in the Championship and there is no guarantee that his T20 success will translate into success with a red ball in hand however, with most Championship cricket likely to be played on green, seaming pitches, his ability to contain the batsmen will at least allow the quicks some rest.

Batting options:

In the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy, runs were in short supply. After a good start, Chris Dent barely scored a run – 170 runs at 24.3 – was a poor return for a player who has been consistently one of the highest run-scoring openers in the country for the last few seasons. It contrasted sharply with his excellent T20 form. Only Graeme van Buuren averaged over 30 and, while 173 runs at 24.7 was a disappointing return for Ryan Higgins, in his case, mitigation was provided by his 17 wickets at 23 and having to bowl far more overs than was good for him. Gloucestershire will need big runs from Chris Dent and will look to Ben Charlesworth to show that a poor 2020 season that ended with five cheap dismissals and a run of four single-figure scores, was just a blip: if the two can see off the new ball regularly, there will be less pressure on Bracey and Lace at #3 & #4 and the chance of some decent scores to defend. 

In 2021, the hope is that Bobby Bracey will be available for most, if not all of the season and will stiffen the top order, compensating the loss of Gareth Roderick to Worcestershire. A good season with the bat will keep Bracey in the minds of the England selectors, who have had him as a travelling reserve with the squad since Test cricket resumed. What Bracey needs now is to return to the County side, to play matches and to score runs. At the same time, Gloucestershire have recognised his importance by making him vice-captain of the Championship side. 

Much will be expected from Tom Lace in 2021. A return of just 73 runs from just three matches and four innings, was less than he would have hoped for. With Benny Howell available again, there should be stronger competition for batting places in the middle order. This will hopefully bring out the best in Jack Taylor, who cut a sad figure in the Bob Willis Trophy side last season: excellent form in the pre-season games will make the supporters hope that he will supply middle-order runs.

Coaching:

The loss of Richard Dawson to England shortly before the start of the season was a deserved recognition for him and an unexpected setback for the Shire. Deputy Coach, Ian Harvey, takes over as interim coach. 

Pre-season 2021

The short pre-season in 2020 could not have gone worse. In 2021, the Shire are at least unbeaten in their three matches so far. The two-day game against Somerset at Taunton was played as 12 v 13. Wickets for Payne and Shaw and fifties for Lace, Taylor, Higgins and Scott saw Gloucestershire restrict Somerset to 251-7 on Day 1 and reply with 420-6, (with two “retired outs” making the official score 420-8), putting young Ned Lennard to the sword. The equivalent game in 2020 had been brutally one-sided, but this was far more promising. The game was followed by two wins in T20 matches at Bristol against the same opponents, with both sides mixing-up up their XIs between the two matches to give more players some practice. In the first, Gloucestershire hung on for a narrow win, with Ned Leonard again coming in for some brutal punishment, particularly from Benny Howell. In the second, a target of 178 was chased-down with an over to spare, largely due to Jack Taylor’s astonishing assault on Marchant de Lange (62 in 37 balls, with 5x6), added to his runs in the red-ball game, this suggests that his batting woes of 2020 have been at least partly forgotten.

At very least, the bowlers have all (apart from Dan Worrell) got some overs in their legs and some wickets to their name in the three games and all the major batsmen have produced at least one good score.

 

Will Gloucestershire be competitive in 2021?

Realistically, Somerset and Surrey will battle it out for the top two spots in the Championship group. It is bad luck that they will be Gloucestershire’s first two opponents. In contrast, the Hampshire game that follows will be a marker: Hampshire, #3 seed in the group, have been Division 1 strugglers in recent seasons and will possibly be the best indicator of Gloucestershire’s true level. The games with Leicestershire and Middlesex that finish the first half of the season will be looked upon as the best chances for success, although, if they can continue the progress that they showed in 2020, Middlesex may well turn out to be the biggest threat to the big two in the group. 

With these first five matches to be finished by May 9^th, it is a safe bet that seam will dominate the first half of the campaign. If Dan Worrall and David Payne can stay fit and form an effective new ball partnership, backed up by Higgins and one of Taylor/Shaw/Warner, Gloucestershire should have a competitive seam attack at least. What is less certain is how well the top order will cope with the seam attacks that will be thrown at them: Somerset are likely to pick a far stronger XI than the one that was repelled so comfortably in the pre-season friendly and there will be no easy games in the group.

Probably, fourth place in their group is a reasonable aspiration for Gloucestershire in the Championship and the most that they are likely to achieve. Anything less would be seen as a major disappointment, if not entirely unexpected. In contrast, anything less than reaching the knock-out phases of the Blast would be a major surprise. 

Spare a thought for the absentee in 2021

Bob Hunt – Sir Robert to his many fans – managed just one and a half days of commentary in 2020 and, after many seasons of following and reporting on the Shire, has hung up his mike due to ill health. His cheerful enthusiasm and sense of fun will be missed by listeners and co-commentators alike.

Wishing you well, Sir Robert.