Glamorgan open their Vitality Blast campaign tomorrow (Friday) against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl with the Welsh county looking to replicate last season’s form in the competition.
In 2017, Glamorgan topped the South Group and reached Finals Day for the first time in 13 years after defeating Leicestershire Foxes in a home quarter-final.
Head Coach Robert Croft has named a 14-man travelling party for the match, with big names returning to the fold. Shaun Marsh returns for Glamorgan after scoring two centuries for Australia in their recent ODI series against England, while Aneurin Donald, David Lloyd and Craig Meschede are also included.
David Lloyd features after missing Glamorgan's Specsavers County Championship game against Northamptonshire with a knee injury, while fellow all-rounder Craig Meschede could make his first appearance of the year for the county after returning from a calf injury.
Marsh returns in time for the Vitality Blast having made an impression with the bat against England, but now has his sights firmly set on scoring runs alongside compatriot Usman Khawaja, who Marsh acknowledges as a 'world-class' operator.
"The boys are really looking forward to it," said Marsh. "The team played very well last year and coming into this year it's a fresh start. We've trained very well so now it's all eyes on Friday.
"He [Khawaja] is a world-class player and done incredibly well in his first three games here and hopefully that continues for the T20 stuff. I've been lucky enough to watch him play over the last few years back home in Australia and he's played well in those competitions so looking forward to getting out there with him and hopefully we can get the boys off to a good start.
"It's nice to have guys like Uzzie and Colin and lots of young players that have played really well for us over the last few years in T20 cricket, so we go into this really confident."
The left-hander hit 131 at Sophia Gardens last month for Australia, but Marsh now wants to produce similar performances in front of the Glamorgan faithful and believes the Vitality Blast is one of the finest competitions in cricket.
"It's right up there with the best," added Marsh. "The crowds were fantastic last year and I've heard there's a good following down here at Glamorgan. I'm really looking forward to playing in front of our home fans and hopefully we can come here after a nice win."
Although confident, Marsh knows the dangers the recently crowned Royal London One-Day Cup champions Hampshire pose and is relishing the challenge.
"They're obviously a very good side, we know we have to play well against them because there's a lot of good players throughout their line-up. We've sat down as a group looking at the opposition to get a feel of what we're coming up against and we'll go from there."
Glamorgan 14-man Vitality Blast squad to play Hampshire: Ingram ©, Donald, Lloyd, Khawaja, Carlson, Marsh, Cooke, Salter, Wagg, Meschede, van der Gugten, Smith, Carey, Hogan
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