Mick Newell says young players will have opportunities to impress as Nottinghamshire head for Barbados for their pre-season tour.
The Outlaws embark on their annual trip without Stuart Broad, Alex Hales, James Taylor, Jake Ball and Samit Patel.
While Hales is aiming to fire England to ICC World T20 glory in India, Broad and Taylor have been granted a period of rest following punishing international schedules over the winter.
Ball and Patel, meanwhile, are Abu Dhabi bound for the MCC Champion County fixture against Yorkshire.
The absence of established stars hands opportunities to the youthful bowling duo of Ben Kitt and Jack Blatherwick, to all-rounder Anuj Dal and to teenage off-spinner Matt Carter, who Newell expects to play a primary role.
“Samit not coming is a good thing for Matt because it makes him the only frontline spin bowler on the trip,” said Newell.
“He’ll get opportunities in the two day matches to bowl some overs and to show he has progressed.
“We were very impressed with what we got last year. Now we want to see a progression.
“If you’re going to take youngsters on your pre-season tour, you need them to bowl,” the Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket added on the inclusion of Kitt, Blatherwick and Dal.
“They’re not going to have a huge match-playing role, but they’ll be part of the nets and training.
“All three of them have shown talent at different stages. Anuj and Ben are a bit older, so we’re looking for them to really kick on and start to show that they should be on the full-time playing staff.
“Barbados is about actions not words. It’s about cricket and we want to see the competition for places beginning now.
“We’ve got nine batsmen for six spots and nine bowlers for four spots. There’s going to be some strong competition and this is where it starts.”
Although preparations for the new season are very much front of mind, Newell has also been looking ahead to 2017 when changes to the domestic structure come into effect.
“One of the key things you can see is the idea of playing cricket in blocks rather than the constant switch of formats,” he said. “That’s something they were keen to put in place.
“From a coach’s perspective, working towards one format of cricket at a time is certainly an easier way to prepare your players.
“An eight team Division One will be a very competitive league, especially as 25% of them are going to get relegated.
“The spring 50-over competition will get players involved in 50-over cricket prior to the Champions Trophy, in conditions that are similar to how they will be for the tournament.
“Playing it earlier will increase the relevance of it. Teams won’t rest players for their Championship run-in as they do at the moment in late July and August.
“In the T20, Nottinghamshire matches against Derbyshire and Leicestershire as good as fill grounds now and losing those matches was seen as too great an unnecessary risk.
“The Executive of the ECB has been sent away to look at options for T20 cricket to see what the best format is going forward.
“It may well be that the status quo is absolutely fine, but this is a chance to reflect, to put some ideas on paper and to talk to people inside and outside of cricket as to what the competition should look like in future years.”
Nottinghamshire’s squad for the tour of Barbados: Jack Blatherwick, Matt Carter, Anuj Dal, Luke Fletcher, Will Gidman, Harry Gurney, Brett Hutton, Ben Kitt, Jake Libby, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Chris Read, Greg Smith, Brendan Taylor, Riki Wessels, Luke Wood, Sam Wood.
Tour Fixtures
Sunday 13 March: T20 Barbados Cup at the Kensington Oval.
Tuesday 15 & Wednesday 16 March (2pm start UK time): Two-day fixture vs Hampshire at Windward CC.
Friday 18 and Saturday 19 March (2pm start UK time): Two-day fixture vs Northamptonshire at Windward CC.
The 2015 season saw dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
Next season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.