Gloucestershire Cricket's 2019 County Championship season kicking off this week
Posted on: 09 Apr 2019With the start of the 2019 Specsavers County Championship campaign now just days away and Gloucestershire Cricket's first team squad finalised, we spoke to captain Chris Dent and bowler Matt Taylor to get their thoughts on the season ahead.
Having finished mid-table in their 2018 County Championship Division Two campaign, Gloucestershire Cricket have been hard at work over the break to ensure they build on last season, resigning Australian Dan Worrall as their overseas player for 2019 and picking up Sussex fast bowler Stuart Whittingham to boost options following the departures of Craig Miles and Liam Norwell.
Gloucestershire captain Chris Dent is hoping that the improvements made to the squad ahead of the 2019 campaign can be enough to mount a challenge for promotion to Division One, but acknowledges that the competition is tough. "Obviously the teams that come down from Division One are always going to be pretty strong - we'll certainly be looking out for Lancashire - but on your day you can beat anyone and we've just got to keep putting in good performances."
Despite strong teams around them though Dent believes that Gloucestershire's 2019 roster is more than strong enough to compete towards the top end of the Division Two table. "We've got a great squad and a lot of young players this time around which is great," he says. "Everyone's improving and we've got a lot of players to select from so we're definitely in a good position to start the season."
A pre-season tour in Spain was also an encouraging sign of the current team's quality, winning three out of three games during a week-long stay in La Manga. Bowler Matt Taylor has had a lot of encouragement from the team's recent form, and believes they can bring it into the start of their new season. "I think this season is a great opportunity to go up this season with three promotion spots up for grabs. If we can give ourselves a good chance towards the back end of the season we'll be in with a good shout."
"We're probably a looked at as a bit of an underdog in Division Two this season, which I don't think is a bad thing" he added. "Hopefully we can get a bit of momentum, prove a few people wrong and be in with a shout of getting ourselves up to Division One."
Gloucestershire's 2019 County Championship campaign gets underway on Thursday with a home match against Derbyshire at The County Ground, and they'll be hoping to get off to a winning start against a side that finished two places below them in 2018. From there, they'll be competing in the Royal London One-Day Cup until their first away match of the season, on Tuesday 14th May at Glamorgan's Spytty Park.
Tickets for Gloucestershire Cricket's 2019 County Championship four-day opener against Derbyshire starting on Thursday 11th April are on sale now and can be found here. For more information on Gloucestershire Cricket or to follow the team's progress in 2019, visit their website or check out their Facebook page.
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