Richard Dawson will warn his Gloucestershire players to ignore the NatWest T20 Blast South Group table when taking on Essex at Chelmsford to night.

The floodlit fixture is the first of three T20 games in four days for Dawson’s relatively small squad, who go into it nicely placed, having won three of their four games.

That includes a 34-run victory over Essex at Bristol, courtesy of an unbeaten Michael Klinger century, one of four defeats suffered by the Eagles in six NatWest Blast matches.

For all that, Dawson is taking nothing for granted. “Essex will be extremely dangerous," he said. "They beat Surrey in their last T20 game and since then their batsmen have come into some form in the Championship match against Northants.

“It’s the nature of T20 cricket that players get in and out of form very quickly and previous results count for nothing. If we let our standards slip at all we will be in trouble.

“Essex have some very talented individuals, internationals and IPL players, so we will give them the respect they merit.

“I expect nothing other than a very tough game and we will have to be at our best to win. Things have gone well for us in the competition so far, but there is a long way to go.”

Klinger echoed those sentiments. “I was particularly pleased to score a hundred on my return to England because it helped us beat an extremely good Essex side,” he said.

“There is certainly no room for resting on any laurels. If you do that this game has a habit of biting you in the backside before you know it.”

Gareth Roderick’s hopes of breaking into Gloucestershire’s T20 team for the first time this season have been hit by an injury to his left thumb, sustained in the LV=County Championship match against Lancashire at Bristol this week.

Klinger will lead the side at Chelmsford, with four-day captain Geraint Jones again likely to be behind the stumps. Hamish Marshall missed the Lancashire game with a calf problem and faces a late fitness check.

Dawson is likely to rotate other players over the course of the busy programme, which sees Gloucestershire entertain Glamorgan on Friday evening before travelling to face Middlesex at Richmond on Sunday.

The head coach has employed only 12 players in the opening four South Group fixtures, but the likes of Will Tavare, Liam Norwell and Kieran Noema-Barnett will come into contention.