Graeme van Buuren is on the verge of a return to Gloucestershire’s team after more than six weeks on the sidelines.
The club's red ball and Royal London Cup captain has not played since damaging a shoulder trying to prevent a boundary in the County Championship match with Somerset at Bristol in May. But he is now close to recovery and eyeing a comeback in either the Vitality Blast clash with Hampshire Hawks at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday night or the home game against Middlesex on Sunday.
Gloucestershire will need to win both to stand a realistic chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
The injury capped a hugely frustrating start to van Buuren’s time as captain following his appointment to take over from Chris Dent for the start of this season, both in terms of results and his own form. So, I was pleased to find him in good spirits when we met up at the Seat Unique Stadium during this week’s Championship fixture against Lancashire.
Graeme told me: “My shoulder popped out and then back in again when I fell awkwardly on the boundary. It was a very tough time for it to happen. I had already had surgery on it previously. That didn’t prove necessary this time, but it has still been a long recovery process.
“Now everything feels fine and I just have to prove that I am up to fielding in a Blast game, which I think will happen either before we play Hampshire or Middlesex. I may also have a game for Chippenham on Saturday if all goes to plan.”
Gloucestershire will be pleased to have van Buuren back leading the side for their next Championship fixture, away to Essex, starting on Monday week. With the format of next season’s competition yet to be confirmed, head coach Dale Benkenstein is looking for improvement in several areas to guard against relegation in the event of the two-division system being retained.
After seeing his team slip from 156 for two to 214 for seven on the opening day of the Lancashire match, he told me: “We again lost wickets to poor shots and that is something we must look at.
“Four-day cricket demands longer spells of concentration and we have been found wanting in that respect too often this season.
“We have a few different personnel in the side now compared with the start of the season and it will be interesting to see if that changes our fortunes. There have been many occasions when we felt in control of games, only to lose clusters of wickets.
“We have to play more consistent cricket over four days. It’s hard to analyse at the moment when T20 cricket is going on alongside Championship fixtures, but we have to do better at the basics of the red ball game.
“That is where concentration and discipline count for a lot. If those things do not improve, we will have to look at bringing in different players who can provide them.”
There has been talk of three divisions of six in the Championship next season, but nothing has been finalised.
“No one knows what will happen, which doesn’t make it easy to plan ahead,” said Benkenstein. “But I don’t mind the authorities taking their time, as long as they get the decision right.”
