CRICKET AM

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Gloucestershire's stand-in captain, Alex Gidman told Cricket AM about his time in charge of the team whilst Jon Lewis has been injured and of his England aspirations.

Under Gidman's leadership Gloucestershire booked their place in the Twenty20 Cup quarter-finals following the recent six wicket win over Glamorgan.

They now face local rivals Worcestershire and Gidman is grateful that his team came out of the hat first.

"I think home advantage is important for us as a lot of teams don't enjoy playing at Bristol but we enjoy playing in front of our home fans.

"It should be good fun and a good occasion. Local derbies are magic in any form of cricket and we are really looking forward to it.

"Twenty20 is a good format, we've done really well playing some good hard cricket and we enjoy it."

The 26-year-old has captained the team since Jon Lewis injured his knee at the start of the season, but the added responsibility has not fazed him, even in the Twenty20 cup.

"Captaining the team in Twenty20 can be a little bit crazy," he said.

"For me you've just got to follow your instincts and you've got to get on with it. You can mess up at any stage but you have to look forward.

"It's a whirlwind - you've got to think on your feet as plans change several times during the course of an innings. But I thoroughly enjoy captaining the Twenty20 matches and I'm not bad at it.

"It's been good and I've really enjoyed it. It came out of the blue to be honest as Jon was injured at the beginning of the season.

As Lewis returns to action Gidman will have to relinquish the captaincy much to his reluctance.

"It will be a bit of a shame to let it go next week. There will be a split changing room and I will try and take a few with me. No, all joking aside it will be fine.

"We're good mates and he's going to be a fine captain. We're all looking forward to him having a good go at it."

Having represented England at 'A' level Gidman is aiming to break in to the full squad but he is aware that certain areas of his game need some fine tuning.

"I've just got to keep knocking on the door I suppose. The selectors probably need to see about more improvement and consistency in my bowling. It's the area of my game that I have found the toughest naturally.

"Although I do have the bowlers arse!"