Derbyshire v Gloucestershire preview

After a long winter and two useful pre-season matches, county cricket resumes once more tomorrow. 

Reading season previews from various writers,  you could be forgiven for thinking that Derbyshire might as well not bother. One well-known writer said that Division Two is very open and 'anyone apart from Derbyshire and Glamorgan' can be promoted..that's an incentive right there..

I think the division is open. Logic suggests that Lancashire should get one of the promotion places, but both Kent and Middlesex will be pushing hard. There's a lot of bravado around other shires, but for all of the bigger names playing in the division, I don't see the likes of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire nor Gloucestershire being much better than us. I would like to think we can do better in this format than last year, but as I have written and said before, injuries will play a part, as will luck.

Harry Moore misses out in the squad for this first game with a back injury. Hopefully that isn't anything more than a niggle, but as I suggested earlier in the week, the final place tomorrow looks set to be between Nick Potts and Pat Brown. Logically, the England Lions tourist should get the nod, while Nye Donald is likely to miss out if Mickey Arthur's 'the only currency is performance' mantra is adhered to. It hasn't yet clicked for him pre-season, so Nye will probably have to wait his turn. I expect to see this side:

Lloyd, Jewell, Came, Madsen, Guest, Reece, Dal, Andersson, Chappell, Morley, Brown

Visitors Gloucestershire are without Cameron Bancroft and Cameron Green, but have a lively seam attack, spearheaded by Marchant de Lange, Zaman Akhtar and Ajeet Singh Dale. James Bracey will skipper the side that battled with Derbyshire for the wooden spoon last season. Their fourteen-man squad is as follows:

Bracey, Shaw, van Buuren, Dent, Akhtar, Phillips, Taylor, Singh Dale, Price, Middleton, Charlesworth, Price, Hammond, de Lange. 

The forecast is good and we look likely to get four days more cricket than we did in last season's opening fixture. I would like to think that six days playing on the square will have been beneficial and that Derbyshire will be quickly out of the traps tomorrow. There is batting depth and plenty of bowling options, never a bad thing.

I hope that they acquit themselves well. Looking down that side, the talent is clearly there and it is simply the case that it needs to be produced on a regular basis throughout a long - hopefully hot and successful - summer.

I will again be with you throughout and look forward to your involvement with plenty of comments as the season progresses.