Glamorgan captain Jacques Rudolph is in confident mood ahead of Glamorgan’s opening NatWest T20 Blast match against Hampshire, despite the recent slide in Specsavers County Championship form.
The Welsh County narrowly missed out on the knock-out stages of the Royal London One-day Cup and reached their first home T20 quarter-finals in 12 years last year. With their recent white-ball success, Rudolph believes his side is well suited to the game’s shortest format.
"We're a team that pride ourselves on white-ball cricket,” said Rudolph. “We've beaten some big teams with big names.
"It's a format where we can play with quite a bit of authority. We've got strong, explosive, X-factor bowlers like Marchant and Timm van der Gugten, then the experience of Hogan and Waggy.
Glamorgan’s batting in the 2016 Blast campaign was inspired by South Africa batsman Colin Ingram, who topped the 2016 batting averages for Glamorgan with 502 runs, including a century and four fifties, and was ably supported by opening batsman David Lloyd who totalled 382.
"With the batting, we played with quite a bit of freedom. Colin had an unbelievable season and Lloydy will come into the mix. He's part of the young Welsh talent coming through and it's a nice opportunity for him to get back into the team.
Homegrown talent Kiran Carlson returns to the squad after missing out in the recent block of Specsavers County Championship fixtures, along with all-rounder Craig Meschede.
Carlson impressed in Glamorgan’s Royal London One-Day Cup campaign scoring over 200 runs at a run a ball, while Meschede has been in action for Glamorgan seconds, taking four wickets against Essex seconds in a T20 match at St. Fagan’s earlier this week.
Glamorgan T20 squad to play Hampshire: Lloyd, Rudolph (c), Meschede, Donald, Salter, Ingram, Cooke, Wagg, Morgan, Carlson, de Lange, van der Gugten, Hogan
TEAM STATS & FACTS
Glamorgan
Captain: Jacques Rudolph
Overseas: Rudolph (SA) – plus fellow South Africans Colin Ingram and Marchant de Lange as Kolpaks.
One to Watch: Ingram – hit a record-equalling 29 sixes in last year’s competition to lead Glamorgan to a home quarter final.
Last Finals Day appearance: 2004 (semi finals)
Hampshire
Captain: James Vince
Overseas: George Bailey (Aus), Shahid Afridi (Pak)
One to Watch: Mason Crane – 20-year-old leg-spinner who showed his star potential in two T20 international appearances for England last month.
Last Finals Day appearance: 2015 (semi finals)