SOMERSET'S cricketers are to play four pre-season fixtures ahead of the 2021 campaign.

Starting on Tuesday, March 23, Somerset will play nine days of cricket before the first LV= Insurance County Championship match against Middlesex, at Lord’s, on Thursday, April 8.

Two of the pre-season matches are against local rivals Gloucestershire, followed by home fixtures against Worcestershire and Glamorgan.

March 23-24 sees Somerset take on Gloucestershire in a two-day, red-ball warm-up match at the Cooper Associates County Ground in Taunton, before heading up the M5 to Bristol for two T20 fixtures against the same opponents on Thursday, March 25.

They will then host Worcestershire (March 29-31) and Glamorgan (April 2-4) for three-day, red-ball matches.

All of the above fixtures will be played behind closed doors, but information on potential live streams of the games is to follow next month.

Somerset defeated Gloucestershire by an innings and 24 runs in a four-day warm-up match last year, with 20-year-old Nathan Gilchrist announcing himself with figures of 4-32 in Gloucestershire's first innings.