Image courtesy of Essex Cricket

The Essex Eagles will be hoping that their fortunes change when they travel to Cardiff to face Glamorgan in a Vitality Blast match on Tuesday (start time 6:30pm).

Defeat on Sunday by Surrey left the Eagles bottom of the South Group table with 5 matches remaining of the Vitality Blast T20 season.

One of the plus points for the Eagles in this format has been Varun Chopra. The opener has recorded 4 half-centuries, the latest on Sunday at The Cloudfm County Ground.

Yet he feels that he could improve:

“I still think I could be doing more, I’ve got to try and get that 80 or 100 and help get that really big total for us. Things aren’t going great for us and we need an individual in an Essex shirt to stand up and put that match-winning innings in for us.”

Chopra also expressed disappointment at how the Vitality Blast T20 season has gone:

“To be honest, we’ve been out-skilled in all 3 departments and that’s something we have to look at moving forward and there is obviously a lot of room for improvement.

“We haven’t been skilful enough and we’ve got a lot of work to do. It may be an opportunity for us to try out a few new things and we shouldn’t be afraid of that.

“We have to draw a line under this latest setback and go down to Cardiff on Tuesday and try to get the win there. Whenever you put on an Essex shirt, you are playing for the badge and with pride and you want to go out and perform.

“There is still a lot to play for because we need to show good form going into red-ball cricket and be showing good character which I think is important now. I’m sure the management and skipper will be looking for that so it’s up to the players to respond.”

Essex Eagles squad to face Glamorgan:

Ryan ten Doeschate (27) (C)

Ravi Bopara (25)

Varun Chopra (6)

Matt Coles (1)

Sam Cook (16)

Simon Harmer (11)

Michael Pepper (19) (WK)

Matt Quinn (94)

Peter Siddle (64)

Paul Walter (22)

Adam Wheater (31) (WK)

Ashar Zaidi (99)

Adam Zampa (88)

Report provided by Essex CCC