Gloucestershire captain Jack Taylor wants his players to "put on a show" as their Vitality Blast campaign gets underway on Thursday.
Glos get their campaign underway against Middlesex at Radlett tonight (Thursday), relishing the chance to change formats after a winless start in their first six County Championship games of the season. Sussex Sharks are the visitors at the County Ground tomorrow.
Taylor, aged 30, has high hopes for the tournament, believing his team has the tools to challenge for silverware.
"We want to put on a show and win games," all-rounder Taylor told Bristol Live. "We’ve got a powerful batting lineup right down to the bottom and we’ve got a bit more firepower in the bowling attack.
"We’ve got everything covered and it’s about going out there and doing it. It’s been a tough six weeks in the top division for the boys that have played in the four-dayers, but this break comes at a perfect time now.
"We’ve got a number of fresh, new faces that are going to come into this side, too, so that baggage of the start of the year hasn’t happened for some of the guys.
"We’re all excited. We’ve got a squad in this format that can really challenge and do the business, so we’re all ready to get going now.
"It’s just about building on what we’ve been doing (in recent years). We’ve got a good squad together and we’ve got ambitions of winning the trophy."
Head coach Dale Benkenstein has named a 13-man squad for tonight's game, with overseas players Glenn Phillips and Naseem Shah set to feature.
New Zealander Phillips was one of the best players in the competition last season, scoring 500 runs at an average of 55.55 in 12 innings, cracking three half-centuries in the process, and Taylor is delighted to have him back in Bristol.
"We saw what Glenn could do last year," he said. "He was one of the best batsmen in the comp, so we’re looking forward to having him back.
"He’s an all-round package. He’s going to be lightning for us in the field, he can offer with the ball, but it is his batting that is his main skill. He’s going to slide in where he did last year and hopefully do the business for us."
Pakistan fast bowler Naseem, meanwhile, has been with Gloucestershire since the start of the red-ball season, but he has not played since the season-opener at Northamptonshire last month due to injury.
But after impressing in second-team games in preparation for the first white-ball leg of the season, Taylor is excited to unleash the 19-year-old in Blast.
"Naseem gives us that real point of difference," the captain explained. "We haven’t had that express pace but from what I’ve seen in the past couple of second-team games, he is right up there. It’s going to be exciting to see what he can do in the Blast.
"I faced him in a middle practice the other day and he’s pretty tasty, so I’m glad he’s on our side and not against us. It’s a beautiful action and it’s effortless, the speed he can bowl, and he’s got some really good change-up, too.
"He’s been going well in the second-team games. We’re just timing it right and he is going to hit the ground running."
Glos narrowly missed out on a quarter-final spot in last season's Blast, finishing the group stages poorly and Taylor is determined to see the Shire learn from that disappointment.
"In the past six or seven years we have quite often made the knockout stages and that is the first step," he added. "It was disappointing not to do it last year. We only needed to win one of the last three and we fell at that hurdle.
"But if we can play the cricket we know, we’ve got all roles and bases covered so if we have seven or eight guys each game do their job, we’ll get enough wins together to get to the knockouts."
