Preview: Gloucestershire v Warwickshire, County Championship

Warwickshire know their destiny is in their own hands when they face Gloucestershire at Bristol in the LV= Insurance County Championship Division One on Tuesday.

matc

2022-09-18T18:17:31.000Z

Warwickshire know their destiny is in their own hands when they face Gloucestershire at Bristol in the LV= Insurance County Championship Division One on Tuesday.

With two games left, Gloucestershire need a miracle to avoid going down but the other relegation spot will be filled by one of three teams - Warwickshire, Kent or Somerset. Bears and Kent are level on points with Somerset eight better off.

A tense fortnight awaits. This week the Bears visit Gloucestershire while Kent are at Hampshire and Somerset host Northamptonshire. Then in the crucial final round, the Bears host title-chasing Hampshire while Somerset and Kent will meet at Taunton.

There are more permutations than you can shake a stick at but, with Hampshire aiming to clinch the title at Edgbaston in the final game, the Bears would love to ease the pressure by beating Gloucestershire.

That won't be easy, judging by the westcountrymen's much improved display against Somerset in their last game, when they were only denied a first victory of the season by a last-day washout. But the Bears will arrive in Bristol fired by the arrival of India stars Mohammed Siraj and Jayant Yadav who made an immediate impression on their debuts against Somerset at Edgbaston last week.

"We have had the addition of two fantastic overseas players in Siraj and Yadav," said first team coach Mark Robinson. "I have played with outstanding overseas players before and some have done everything right and committed to the cause of their county and some haven't. These two totally have. It was clear from their first days with us that they are not only very good players but very good individuals highly committed to helping Warwickshire in the situation we are in.

"We haven't been able to take 20 wickets in a match this season and to have their quality is immensely helpful because it takes some of the pressure off Olly Hannon-Dalby and Henry Brookes. Olly is supporting Siraj instead of having to lead us as he has for so long and Henry bowled the best I have seen him bowl in the last game."

While the injury-ravaged bowling ranks have been fleshed out, the Bears also need to put some runs on the board. A 400-plus first innings total alone would constitute a significant step towards safety. As always they will look to Sam Hain whose tireless excellence continued against Somerset last week when he passed 1,000 first class runs for the summer to move within three of 6,000 in his career.

Gloucestershire are all but relegated, but they beat the Bears by 78 runs (despite Hannon-Dalby's 12 wickets in the match) in a Covid-enforced empty ground in 2020 and Bristol has not been a productive venue for the Bears in the championship of late. They have won just one red ball game there in the last 60 years, in 1992 when Allan Donald came out on top in a duel of great fast bowlers with Courtney Walsh.

Robinson's team know they need to stand tall this week and find a big performance to prevent going into the final game, against high-flying Hmpshire, under huge pressure.

"We certainly won't underestimate Gloucestershire," said Robinson. "They put out a good showing against Somerset last time out and sometimes when the pressure is off a team it can have good effects. We can only do what we can control and play good cricket and see where that takes us."

Squad

Will Rhodes (C)Jacob BethellDanny BriggsHenry BrookesAlex Davies (WK)George GarrettSam HainOlly Hannon-DalbyDan MousleyDom SibleyMohammed SirajJayant YadavRob Yates

Michael Burgess is unavailable for the trip to Gloucestershire with Alex Davies taking over the gloves.

Liam Norwell (elbow) is ruled out for the season, whilst Craig Miles and Ryan Sidebottom are both troubled by a sore hamstring, although the latter has returned to Second XI action.

Chris Woakes and Olly Stone have flown to Pakistan as part of England's tour of a IT20 series and three Test matches.

Adam Hose flew out this week to play in the CPL for St Lucia Kings as a late replacement for Tim David.

How to Follow

Members and supporters can follow the match live in our new-look Match Centre at edgbaston.com, which will include a free to watch Live Stream, with BBC commentary, and a live text commentary.

Supporters can get involved by sending their match day comments and thoughts to matchday@edgbaston.com, and we’ll publish the best ones on our live text commentary in the Match Centre.

Supporters can also watch the Live Stream and get instant push notifications of all wickets, innings and match results via the Edgbaston app, which is free to download on iOS and Android.

Match updates will also be available across the Club’s social media accounts, simply search for @WarwickshireCCC.