Skipper Vince Relishing Royal London One-Day Cup Challenge

Hampshire captain James Vince is no stranger to leading in the limited-overs format and with the Royal London One-Day Cup competition commencing in just two days’ time, the destructive right-hander feels this year’s is one in which Hampshire can thrive.

After captaining the England Lions 50-over side over the winter, the 24-year-old was awarded his full England debut earlier this year whilst also being named in a 13-man T20 squad that faced New Zealand.

Vince now has his eyes set on limited-overs success with Hampshire and after qualifying for a seventh consecutive quarter-final in the NatWest T20 Blast, he is now turning his attention to the longer limited-overs format.

‘I had a taste of captaining in the winter with the lions for the first time leading the guys in the 50 over format so I’m not coming into it completely new. It’s a competition that we under-performed in last year so it’s something we need to focus on and try and make that lord’s final this year – I think we’ve got a good enough squad to be able to win that competition.

‘We’re obviously going to fight hard in the four-day stuff but the most we can gain is staying up in that so if we can stay alive in the one-day competitions there’s no reason why we can’t win both of them and have a good year.’

The top-order batsman already has extensive plans in place heading into the competition’s first fixture and believes that the bowlers available are sure to be significant factor in succeeding in the 2015 campaign.

‘I think wicket-taking bowlers in the 50-over stuff is more important than perhaps what it was in the 40-over format. I think guys that can contain with good control in the 40-over games were important and batsmen often tried to force the pace but with the slightly longer 50-over competition you need wicket-taking bowlers to slow the opposition from scoring so that’s something we’ll be looking at and that’s something that I think we have as a strength.’

Hampshire take on local rivals Sussex in the first fixture of the competition on Monday and Vince is confident of his side’s chances heading into the opening contest.

‘Sussex are a good side so it will be a tough test but hopefully one that we can come out on the right side of. It’s good that we’ve got a win over them at their place last Friday night so hopefully we can take a lot of confidence from that when we face them on Monday and pick up an important win to start the competition well.’ 

For more information and to purchase tickets for Monday's match against Sussex please click here.

Words: Will Brewster