Head coach Matt Maynard has named a 13-man squad for Glamorgan’s belated opening four-day competition match of the summer against Somerset in Taunton.
Chris Cooke will lead the side, although vice-captain David Lloyd is out with injury (foot), as is opening bowler Timm van der Gugten (ankle sprain).
It has been confirmed that batsman Kiran Carlson will bat in the number three position, while 22-year-old Callum Taylor will make his First-Class debut if selected tomorrow with both impressing coaches in the recent intra-squad matches at Sophia Gardens.
Captain Chris Cooke believes that while Somerset are one of the favourites to win the new Bob Willis Trophy, he backs his side and a potentially new-look batting line-up to get the job done against their local rivals.
‘They’ve got a lot of quality, and they’ve been challenging up the top end of division 1 the last few years. It’s going to be a tough game but we’ll go down there very confident,’ said Cooke.
‘We’ve been a bit unlucky with Lloydy getting injured and Marnus being unable to come over, but that it’s a great opportunity for some of the younger guys to come through and take their chance.
‘We’ve had a few warm-up games, with a lot of guys in form and guys putting up their hands up.’
Kiran Carlson’s form in the pre-season intra-squad games hasn’t gone un-noticed, with a few half-centuries in a variety of circumstances throughout the condensed schedule which have impressed head coach Matt Maynard and his coaching team.
‘Kiran’s been around for a good while around the set-up, he’s got an abundance of talent and he’s a player that I really like,’ said Maynard.
‘We’re pushing him to stand-up and take that opportunity at three. He’s worked really hard on his red-ball game, to tighten his technique a bit, and hopefully that will bring him results in the next few games as it has in the intra-squad games.
'He’s the kind of player you want at the Club. He’s hungry, he’s great in the field, he gives his team a buzz and he’s a bit of a joker as well so he brings a lot to the team and when he’s not around, you miss him.'
Due to Covid-19, the First-Class season was postponed until August and has been regionalised with the Welsh county placed in the Central Group alongside local rivals Somerset and Gloucestershire, as well as Worcestershire, Northants and Warwickshire.
Each team will play each other once with Glamorgan’s home games against Gloucestershire (15th August) and Warwickshire (6th September) with both fixtures to be shown on the club’s upgraded live stream.
