Hants Hoping to Overcome Injury Concerns for Bristol

Neil McKenzie is expected to return following injury

Full squad and match preview ahead of Hampshire's LV= County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Bristol starting on Monday

Gloucestershire v Hampshire
LV= County Championship
Mon 6 – Thurs 9 August (11am start)
Bristol

Hampshire manager Giles White is confident batsman Neil McKenzie and all-rounder Liam Dawson will overcome injury ‘niggles’ to be fit in time for his side’s LV= County Championship match against Gloucestershire starting on Monday.

Dawson (hamstring) batted with a runner for part of his second innings in Hants’ last fixture (a draw against Kent at The Ageas Bowl), while McKenzie missed that match, also with a slight hamstring strain suffered during the Royals’ Friends Life t20 Quarter-Final victory over Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

But White said; “There are a lot of niggles in the group; it’s a symptom of the amount of cricket we’ve been playing. But we are hopeful we will all be fit and raring to go. There are no serious injuries, just a few niggles.”

It’s good news for the side, who have also enjoyed the best part of a week off to ‘recharge their batteries’ ahead of a busy schedule which sees them playing cricket on 15 of the 19 days (three Clydesdale Bank 40 and three LV=CC matches) leading up to Flt20 Finals Day, not to mention travel days.

In Gloucestershire, Hampshire play a team who narrowly beat them (by 33 runs) in their opening game of the Championship season despite an 11-wicket performance from seamer David Balcombe and a 118-run seventh-wicket partnership between wicketkeeper Michael Bates and Chris Wood.

However, both teams have made significant changes since then with Hampshire having re-shuffled their batting order since that match and having the likes of McKenzie, Bilal Shafayat, Dimi Mascarenhas, Kabir Ali and the in-form James Tomlinson (23 wickets, including two four-wicket and one five-wicket hauls in three of his last four bowled innings) all available as potential changes to the side which last faced this opposition.

Former Ageas Bowl batsman, Benny Howell should feature for the hosts having signed for them since the reverse fixture.

To hear a full interview with Giles White, click on the audio file below:

If you can not see this interview, listen to it here http://chirb.it/7CAHsM

Full Squad:

(3) Simon Katich	(19) Danny Briggs
(4) Jimmy Adams*	(21) James Tomlinson
(7) Sean Ervine	(33) Kabir Ali
(8) Liam Dawson	(44) Neil McKenzie
(14) James Vince	(46) Bilal Shafayat
(16) Michael Bates†	(84) David Balcombe
(17) Dimitri Mascarenhas