GLAMORGAN hope to have Leicestershire cursing by getting their Specsavers County Championship up and running at Grace Road over the coming four days.

Robert Croft’s side head to the East Midlands on the back of a loss by an innings and 22 runs inside two days at Northamptonshire and an eight-wicket defeat to Worcestershire in Cardiff.

Their hosts haven’t exactly enjoyed their start to the campaign themselves after being docked 16 points for bad behaviour – and also being punished with a one-match ban for captain Mark Cosgrove that denies him a reunion with his former Glamorgan teammates – and enduring heavy losses to Nottinghamshire and Gloucestershire.

Glamorgan captain Jacques Rudolph knows that he and his fellow seasoned professionals need to stand tall.

“We’ve had some good, strong conversations,” said the former South Africa batsman. “I think it’s important for the senior players in the team to stand up.

“We have a good blend of senior players and a lot of young Welsh talent in the likes of Aneurin Donald and Kiran Carlson.

“I’ve always been of the belief that in county cricket as soon as you can gather some momentum you’ve got to try and carry it on for a long time.

“If you look at last season we started with three losses and during the season there were about three or four games where we just missed out on winning opportunities.

“If that had happened we would still have finished in the top three or four so it’s not all doom and gloom at the moment.”

Glamorgan are still without batsman Will Bragg, who has been troubled by a back problem, while the attack is deprived of seamers Timm Van der Gugten, Graham Wagg and Ruaidhri Smith.

Head coach Croft heads to the East Midlands with the same team XI that took on Worcestershire along with spinner Andrew Salter.

Glamorgan: Rudolph (captain), Selman, Lloyd, Ingram, Cooke (wicket-keeper), Donald, Carlson, Salter, De Lange, Hogan, Carey, Podmore