By Tom Lea
AS the new county cricket season draws nearer, Glamorgan County Cricket Club will be filled with optimism as they look to bounce back from a disappointing showing in the Covid disrupted 2020 season.
The Welsh side finished bottom of the Central Group in the Bob Willis Trophy, collecting only two draws across the five games. They offered a bit more fight in the shorter format of the game during the T20 Blast, but still failed to make it out of the group stages after four wins and five defeats across their 10 games.
These performances will have been made even tougher for the side to swallow by seeing their local rivals Somerset and Gloucestershire reach the final of the Bob Willis Trophy and the semi-finals of the Blast respectively. Last season was very disappointing for the sole Welsh side in the County game as they had missed out on promotion to Division One of the County Championship by just 15 points in 2019, as well as narrowly missing out on the knockout stages of the Royal London One Day Cup.
While it currently remains unclear how much of a part Australian duo Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser will be able to play across the season at Sophia Gardens, lots of expectation in the batting department could once again fall on the shoulders of captain Chris Cooke and Billy Root, brother of England captain Joe while there are also high hopes for 23-year-old Callum Taylor who belted a 94-ball 106 on his first-class debut against Northamptonshire last summer.
On the bowling front, the quality of spin pair Prem Sisodiya and Andrew Salter is undisputed, especially in white ball cricket, however there are concerns that the loss of pace bowler Marchant de Lange may have left them a seamer short. A lot of the workload in the bowling department looks set to fall on the shoulders of experienced campaigners Timm van der Gugten and Michael Hogan, while Dan Douthwaite is a prospect to watch with both bat and ball across the coming season in all formats.
Glamorgan fan Liam Roberts said, ‘Last season was a huge disappointment, especially in the four-day games but I think the batting line-up looks in good shape for this year even if Marnus doesn’t come over. Cooky will obviously lead by example and I am looking forward to seeing more of Cal Taylor as well. If Neser can’t come over from Australia, then the bowling is definitely going to struggle and there is going to be a lot of pressure on the young lads to step up unless we can get another bowler or two signed before April rolls around.’
When asked about potential incomings, one name sprung to Roberts’ mind ‘There is a lad called Toby Lester who got released by Lancashire last summer, he’s done well in T20 stuff before and I think he could fit in quite nicely with the left-arm angle to replace Graham Wagg. Other than that, I can’t really think of anyone specifically but I reckon we do need one or two more in if we can.’