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Preview : Dawson rings changes for Championship game at Northampton

5 August 2017

Gloucestershire's head coach Richard Dawson has recalled five players who have yet to take the field in this season's NatWest T20 Blast campaign for Sunday's Division 2 Championship match at Northampton.

With the club in second place in the South Group table after Friday's win over Somerset, Dawson brings back together the nucleus of the four day side which hasn't played in the Championship since the drawn encounter with Worcestershire at the Cheltenham Festival.

With Cameron Bancroft unavailable and Michael Klinger rested, Chris Dent, Will Tavare, Gareth Roderick, Craig Miles and Liam Norwell all return to the squad and there is a first call up for Academy off spinner George Drissell. Josh Shaw, who is on loan from Yorkshire until the end of August, is also included.

Squad :

Cockbain, Tavare, Roderick, Hankins, Mustard (c), J.Taylor, Noema-Barnett, Miles, Payne, Norwell, Shaw, Drissell.

Head coach Richard Dawson said "There has been some disruption for those playing red ball cricket in the second XI with rain during the Somerset game last week, and they only played two days the week before that but we've done as much as training as we can. It's August and they'll be keen and ready for a game against a side that play an attacking brand of cricket and have batsmen who can score quickly."

Northants - who play a T20 game at Worcester on Saturday - have one of the smallest squads on the county circuit but they are well placed both in the short format and in the Championship, where three wins in their last four matches have lifted them to the fringe of the promotion race in Division 2 with a game in hand.

Gloucestershire - who also have six Championship matches left - have two bowlers in a personal race to reach 200 first class wickets. Both are likely to be involved here, with Craig Miles just in front of David Payne and needing six more to reach the milestone first.

Payne took 3-29 in Friday's T20 win over Somerset before Kieran Noema-Barnett fired Gloucestershire up to their victory target with four sixes in his innings of 33.

"The wickets put Somerset under pressure and the middle overs in particular were really good" Dawson added. "Somerset got a total they could try and defend but I was really pleased with how we paced our innings and we asked Kieran to do a specific job and he's gone out and done it."

"He's done well in the Championship batting at number eight and we know he can hit a good ball. The lads are really pleased for him. "

Coverage :

You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @GlosCricket

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