GLAMORGAN head coach Matthew Maynard says that Newport all-rounder Callum Taylor is knocking on the door for a first-class debut.

The 22-year-old is retained in the 13-man squad for the county's second match in the Bob Willis Trophy at Worcestershire, which starts at New Road today.

Taylor impressed in pre-season but missed out in the opening round when Glamorgan suffered a 289-run loss to Somerset at Taunton.

Maynard says that Newport-born, Australia-raised Taylor, son of former Pontypool captain Matthew, is making an impression in his second season on the books at Sophia Gardens.

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"He's very exciting and he's really impressed in pre-season, he's dynamic," said the head coach about Taylor, who was nominated for the second XI player of the year and young player of the year awards in 2019.

"He came into the side in T20 cricket last year and I think he's become a better player over the winter with a couple of things to take away back to Australia.

"He's done that, he's worked on it and come back, he's scored runs in both the T20 warm up games and the two and three-day games. He's a very promising talent who bowls unusual off-spin as well."

Timm van der Gugten returns to the squad after recovering from an ankle injury and replaces Ruaidhri Smith, who picked up a hamstring injury during the defeat to Somerset.

Billy Root believes the side has the ability to bounce back against a Worcestershire team that beat Gloucestershire convincingly at Bristol.

"It's important that as a squad that we take the positives from the Somerset game and we want to put those into practice again, and get the result we are after," said the batsman, who scored 1 and 26 in the West Country.

"They had a very skilful attack, and it was a challenge but seeing the way that Chris Cooke played in the second innings gives us something we can take into the next few games and gather some momentum."

Worcestershire are slightly more familiar opponents, having played them in recent years in the County Championship, and Root knows that it'll be a hard-fought encounter against a determined side.

"They're always up for the fight, you know going there it's not going to be an easy game.

"We need to concentrate on what we do well and if we do that we should get a result.

"It's a nice place to go, they play the game hard and fair so it's good competition against Worcestershire and I look always forward to this game."