By Gary Baker

ALREADY, it looks like it is going to be another one of those seasons for Gloucestershire.

Out of the Royal London One-Day Cup, two key players injured for the T20 Blast campaign and now a demoralising hammering by Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge over the weekend in the Specsavers County Championship Division Two.

The journey home from the East Midlands on Sunday evening must have been a quiet one and head coach Richard Dawson has a lot to think about before the sides meet again at the Brightside Ground, Bristol, on a week on Friday.

The previous weekend, it was a case of the top order batsmen who needed to get back into the nets and practice on their game but now Dawson should give the bowlers a bit of encouragement before they go out onto the pitch again.

Nobody expects to win every match but the question has to be asked as to why, on Friday, Nottinghamshire, on the same pitch as Gloucestershire batted on twice, were able to ease the ball away so that Indian Cheteshwar Pujara and Michael Lumb both reached centuries.

Gloucestershire actually put Nottinghamshire in to bat first after winning the toss only to see Indian Test batsman scored Pujara hit 112 and Lumb score 117 as the second division leaders totalled 357 for five at the end of the first day.

Notts declared on 430 and, while Craig Miles got four wickets, it came at the expense of 123 runs in 25 overs – nearly five an over – while Matt Taylor took three wickets for 85 but had only one maiden in his 25 overs.

Gloucestershire’s batting collapsed again in the top order, at one stage they were 18-3 in comparison to Nottinghamshire’s 122 for the same number of wickets.

Only a decent 53 from wicketkeeper Phil Mustard saved Gloucestershire from an even worse total than their 149 all out.

So, following on and needing 282 to force Nottinghamshire to bat again, opener Cameron Bancroft struck 53, Mustard pitched in with 49 and the last four batsmen added 64 between them as Gloucestershire were all out for 231.

Dawson said that Nottinghamshire never let them off the hook so it may be just a bit of ruthlessness and self-belief that Gloucestershire need to get them back on the right track.