CRICKET FEATURE: Glos cannot be a one-man band, says Thornbury's Chris Dent

Australian captain Michael Klinger was the backbone of the county’s campaign in 2015, which saw the 35-year-old lead them to a Royal London One-Day Cup triumph back in September.

Dent, 25, wielded the willow well last season and has started Gloucestershire’s campaign like a house on fire.

He has been at it again already during the new season, hitting a whopping 180 on a placid pitch in his side’s draw with Derbyshire plus two solid knocks of 59 and 138 not out in this week’s drawn clash with Worcestershire at Bristol’s Brightside Ground.

But he said the whole squad has to contribute this year.

Dent said: “It is key. Everyone wants to try and chip in because that is what we are good at.

“We play as a team and, although Michael (Klinger) may score a lot of the runs, when he doesn’t score runs, someone else will chip in and score them.”

And he wants to build on his personal platform as well as see Gloucestershire rise to the occasion in all formats of the domestic game this summer.

Dent, who came through the ranks of Thornbury Cricket Club before getting his big chance at Gloucestershire, said: “It should be a good year for the team and personally, I would like to have another good year and go from there. On the long version (the County Championship), we are always practising it and that is our main goal to do well in that.

“And with the T20s, we have brought in players like Chris Liddle, with his experience and we will learn from last year when we were close to getting through the group stages.”

Dent also thinks the Gloucestershire squad are in good shape, despite losing to Essex at Chelmsford in the opening first-class fixture of the summer.

He added: “Everyone seems to have got on well and are working together. The new players, like Josh Shaw, Liddle and some of the younger lads we have brought in from the Academy, are fitting in well so again I think we will have a good team spirit and we will win something again this year.”