ESSEX Eagles will be boosted by the return of Ryan ten Doeschate for tomorrow’s Clydesdale Bank 40 match at home to

Gloucestershire Gladiators.

All-rounder ten Doeschate has yet to appear for the county this summer having been involved in the IPL for the eventual winners, Kolkata Knight Riders.

Essex are still seeking their first CB40 win of the season after defeat by the Netherlands last Tuesday, which left them with just one point from their opening four matches. The Gladiators have won two of their three games in this year’s competition.

Essex head coach Paul Grayson names a 14-man squad and is looking for his final line-up to find the winning note.

“It’s good to have Tendo back with us because we’ve been missing one of our best players,” he said.

“Last year when he returned to us, he looked a bit jaded having played a lot of cricket but this time he’s fresh, fit and ready to go and it’s good to see him looking like that.

“Hopefully he’ll give us a bit of confidence and get our campaign going because, naturally, we want to qualify from the group but we can’t afford any more slip-ups. We’ve had a poor couple of weeks losing to Worcestershire Royals and Netherlands in the CB40 plus the defeat to Derbyshire in the LV= County Championship but there’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves.

“We have to get it out of our system, work hard which we are doing and come out of this tricky period. At any stage of the county season, you can have a period when you don’t do as well as you would like but we have to make sure that we do well over the rest of the season. There is a lot to play for and it’s important that we get the right attitude and performances together now.”

The Gladiators can boast two wins from their three matches although on the occasion of their last visit to Essex in the competition, they suffered a heavy defeat losing by 118 runs at Castle Park in a match that saw Owais Shah score a hundred while there were half-centuries for James Foster and Tom Westley.

That victory avenged a four-wickets defeat for the Eagles at Cheltenham College just three weeks earlier.

The match on Monday is scheduled to start at 1.45pm with gates opening at 11.45pm. Tickets are available for a discounted advanced price of �17 Adults and �9 Juniors. Family tickets are available (two adults and two children) for the price of �40. These are available online, in person at The Ford County Ground and by phone 01245 254010.

Essex squad: J Foster (wkt, capt), M Pettini, R Bopara, O Shah, T Westley, G Smith, G Napier, R ten Doeschate, T Phillips, D Masters, T Mills, C Willoughby, M Comber, A Wheater.