brett d’oliveira is part of the worcestershire squad for tomorrow’s specsavers county championship match against sussex at kidderminster.
the all-rounder played in the opening championship triumph of the season away to leicestershire.
d’oliveira – the club’s official white ball vice-captain – also skippered the side which reached the knockout stages of the royal london one-day cup.
the 27-year-old’s spinning skills may be required although no decision will be taken until after a look at the pitch tomorrow morning.
first team coach alex gidman said: “we always need the option of having some spin in our team. we realise that we don’t necessarily need it that much at New Road.
“but with most other grounds, including our own venues away from new road, and including kidderminster, there is a good chance that we might need some form of spin in the team.
“we will assess conditions tomorrow morning and see whether it is part of the make-up joe (leach) wants to take onto the pitch.”
d’oliveira is added to the players who were on duty in the rain-ruined home game with lancashire last week when only 71.3 overs play were possible.
josh tongue is again unavailable due to his arm injury and fellow paceman dillon pennington has been unable to get the overs under his belt with the seconds because of the weather intervening after his ankle injury.
gidman said: “we know sussex are another very good team. we’ve played good teams in the last three games and this will make it four out of four. it’s been a really testing period.
“the lads are looking forward to it. we know we haven’t quite hit our straps in the last couple of weeks but they are looking forward to the opportunity to perform this week and get a positive result with as many points as we can.
“it’s about bouncing back now. it is about us trying to do those simple things as well as we can to give ourselves a chance of performing again.
“sussex are probably the form team. lancashire are playing very consistently and have done all season. but if you look back at the last couple of weeks sussex have probably been the form team.”
gidman, who played in a t20 match for gloucestershire at kidderminster in 2007, said the players had come to terms with having to make the switch away from the county’s headquarters to chester road due to the flooding.
he said: “the lads have dealt it very well so far. we kind of had a heads-up that it (the flooding) might be happening in the middle of last week.
“we started preparing for it logistically and we managed to get some good practice in today (at kidderminster) and a bit yesterday as well.
“credit to everyone that’s been involved to turn it around and to give us the opportunity to play here (kidderminster). the lads are raring to go.
“most of the lads are used to playing here, at least a bit if not quite a lot. we’ve got some experienced players who have spent pre-seasons here and played second team cricket here. we are okay from that point of view.”
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worcestershire (from)
mitchell
dell
ferguson
wessels
whiteley
barnard
cox (w)
parnell
leach ©
morris
finch
d’oliveira
