The Essex Eagles head to Taunton to face Somerset in the Royal London One-Day Cup on Friday and will be looking to get back to winning ways in the competition.
After success in the opening match, the Eagles have suffered back-to-back defeats and now come up against a Somerset side who have taken maximum points from their three Group B matches so far.
The absence of Varun Chopra against Surrey proved to be a hammer blow for Anthony McGrath’s side. The opener, who had scored centuries in the first two matches, was forced to pull out of Tuesday’s match with a quad strain.
Essex will select from a 14-man squad for Friday’s match with Aaron Beard currently unavailable after fracturing a toe.
Eagles skipper Ryan ten Doeschate admits that his side needs to improve on recent performances if they are to remain in the 50-over competition.
He said: “We played really well against Glamorgan in our first match, it was a superb overall display with bat and ball, but then we suffered two losses with those disappointing results.
“We’ve obviously left ourselves with a lot to do if we want to qualify for the next stage. Last year we only won two of our first five games but then we took three victories from the last three matches.
“We need to dust ourselves down and hopefully we can go down to Taunton and put on an improved performance. Somerset are a very strong and good one day side, but we know we can beat anyone when we play to the best of our abilities.”
Essex Eagles squad to face Somerset:
Ryan ten Doeschate (27) (captain)
Ravi Bopara (25)
Alastair Cook (26)
Sam Cook (16)
Simon Harmer (11)
Dan Lawrence (28)
Aron Nijjar (24)
Rishi Patel (12)
Jamie Porter (44)
Matt Quinn (94)
Peter Siddle (64)
Paul Walter (22)
Tom Westley (21)
Robbie White (4) (wicket-keeper)
