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Hamish Marshall says Gloucestershire can push for promotion

Hamish Marshall of Gloucestershire
Image: Hamish Marshall: Targeting promotion

Hamish Marshall believes Gloucestershire will be pushing for promotion to Division One of the County Championship this season.

The Kiwi batsman is about to start his 10th season - and his benefit year - at Bristol and after a barren few years, he says there is now enough talent in the squad to be genuine contenders.

“Our squad is reasonably young but there is some real talent there,” he told Sky Sports News HQ. “We’ve got some good batters and bowlers, who, if we can keep fit, can be pushing for promotion. It’s about being consistent.

“It’s been our biggest problem over the last few years… playing a good game and then a few bad ones. If we can play consistently well then, like any team, we’ve got a chance.”

The departure of the Gidman brothers, Will and Alex, at the end of the season, was cause for serious concern for Gloucestershire supporters.

But there are some new faces at Bristol too. They have a new coach – Richard Dawson – and a new captain in Geraint Jones, who arrives from Kent.

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Peter Handscomb, a British passport-holding Australian who has been prolific in the Sheffield Shield and one of just two players to score a century in the Big Bash, bolsters the batting.

“Daws is an experienced player – he played a lot for Yorkshire, ourselves and Northants,” Marshall said. “We’ll help him all we can. As a coach, he’s enthusiastic. He coached at Yorkshire last year so he’s brought some good ideas from the county champions. We’re just looking forward to getting into the season.

“Every team goes through patches. We’ve struggled a little bit, it’s fair to say. We’ve had moments where we’ve put ourselves in positions to get into semi-finals and haven’t got over the line.

“This team, it’s a young squad and if we can stay together in the future there’s a good chance we can push for trophies.”

And heading into the new season, Marshall says there is nowhere else he would rather be.

“Bristol is a beautiful city, it’s a great place to be,” he said. “There’s a lovely membership here, they look after us. We head up to Cheltenham for two weeks and they support us really well in the north of the county.

“There’s a lot of things that are good about the club, it’s heading in the right direction.”

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