Head coach Matt Maynard has named a 13-man squad for Glamorgan’s Specsavers County Championship fixture against local rivals Gloucestershire at Spytty Park in Newport tomorrow.
The Welsh county return to red-ball action for the first time since early April when they secured a draw against Northants in their opening Specsavers County Championship of the season at Sophia Gardens.
There is one change to the squad which faced Northants with all-rounder Jeremy Lawlor replacing Kiran Carlson who is currently undertaking exams at University, while Michael Hogan returns to the Glamorgan squad after recovering from a hamstring strain which kept him out of Glamorgan’s final Royal London One-Day Cup matches.
‘It will take a bit of time to get back into that four-day tempo with bat and ball, but Gloucestershire are in the same boat,” said assistant head coach David Harrison.
‘The boys are in a good place, a lot of them played club cricket on Saturday, the spirit in the camp is good and we have trained well. We’ve got all bases covered in our team, so we are looking forward to the challenge.’
It will be a historic match at Newport with Glamorgan last playing a County Championship fixture in the city 54 years ago and Newport-born Harrison is thrilled at the return of First-Class cricket to east Wales and believes the club have thoroughly deserved the opportunity to host the match.
‘It’s been a good ground for a long time now and Newport have always put a lot of work in, the sun is shining and the wicket looks good,’ said Harrison
‘Newport is certainly as good as all the other out-grounds that we play at in the county, so everyone is looking forward to a good game over four days, and hopefully a win.
‘Cardiff is our base but to bring a fixture to east Wales is fantastic. They have the infrastructure here. Hope it goes well for us and Newport and we can come back in the future.’
Glamorgan Squad to face Gloucestershire: Cooke*+ Lloyd, Labuschagne, Carey, Hemphrey, Selman, Hogan, vd Gugten, de Lange, Bull, Lawlor, Root & Wagg.