27 Jul 2015 | Cricket
Head Coach Toby Radford has confirmed an unchanged 12-man squad for tomorrow's Royal London One-Day Cup fixture, as Glamorgan begin their road to Lord's by entertaining Kent Spitfires at The SSE SWALEC.
Glamorgan picked up one point from Sunday's opening game of the tournament at Welbeck Colliery CC, as rain interrupted proceedings after the Welsh county had made a good start.
Graham Wagg is again unavailable for selection as he begins his return to play protocols following mild concussion in the final NatWest T20 Blast group game.
We played some good stuff in the Royal London One-Day Cup last year, said Toby Radford, and we had some good wins against Surrey away from home, at Taunton against Somerset and we beat Middlesex, so in many ways it's a competition we feel like we play well in and it has potentially come at a good time.
We start off with 4 games in a week and your practice and preparation is all geared to one competition which is a plus, and with games coming in a block, you can really get your mind focussed on what you are doing.
Glamorgan's four home fixtures are against the four teams that qualified for the quarter-finals of the NatWest T20 South Group, so Radford is aware of the quality of opposition.
They are good sides that we are up against so it's a difficult competition, and even harder for us this year because we were docked points for the pitch against Durham last year. Starting on minus two is never easy for any team.
Although we are aware of the challenge, we aren't going to hide behind that. Our approach is to welcome the new competition and we want to try and win all these games we go into, play to win and for individuals and the team to do well.
The Welsh county defeated the Spitfires a fortnight ago at Tunbridge Wells in the NatWest T20 Blast and the Kent side will also be looking to avenge their record in two matches last summer at Cardiff. In the first, the visitors lost their County Championship match by an innings and 11 runs before the two counties were involved in a thrilling tie as Michael Hogan delivered a superb final over with Doug Bollinger being run out off from the final ball to save Glamorgan from defeat.
We've had some really good games of cricket against Kent, and they've done particularly well in the T20 format so we know they play short format cricket well but so do we, so it should be a good match and we will be looking forward to it.
They've got a lot of young talent coming through, Northeast has done well with the bat of late, Bell-Drummond has come through as well and if Blake plays we know he can be a destructive player in the T20 format so they've got plenty of good players and Coles might be back too as he's been rested for a couple of games but he's a key bowler for them. They are a good side, so we're looking forward to taking them on.
Commenting on Graham Wagg, Glamorgan physio Mark Rausa said, After showing no symptoms of concussion in his assessment today, Graham can now begin his return to play protocols,
He will begin his return to play with a view to getting fit for Friday's Royal London One-Day Cup game Essex Eagles at The SSE SWALEC.
Glamorgan squad to play Kent Spitfires at The SSE SWALEC: Jacques Rudolph (c), Will Bragg, Colin Ingram, Aneurin Donald, Chris Cooke, Mark Wallace, Craig Meschede, David Lloyd, Andrew Salter, Ruaidhri Smith, Dean Cosker, Michael Hogan.