Tom Abell questions Somerset's mentality after Hampshire defeat: "We haven’t shown enough backbone or fight"

The Taunton club's batting tribulations continued as they were bowled out for 180 and 135 to lose by an innings at The Ageas Bowl

Somerset captain Tom Abell has taken aim at his teammates after kicking off the LV=Insurance County Championship season with a heavy defeat to Hampshire at The Ageas Bowl.

The Taunton club were dismissed for 135 on day three, to go alongside their first innings 180, to give Hants victory by an innings and 113 runs and a perfect start to the new campaign.

Since the start of the 2019 season, Somerset have been bowled out 22 times without reaching 200 in the County Championship.

Abell hoped those issues had been ironed out during the winter and was at a loss to explain yet another damaging collapse.

"It is very disappointing," he admitted, according to the ECB Reporters Network. "Coming here we were in a pretty optimistic mood, particularly with how pre-season had gone. 

"We expect more from ourselves, particularly with the bat where we haven’t given a good account of ourselves.

^{Ben Green in survival mode (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)}

"They are a world-class attack and we didn’t have the answers. The most disappointing thing is that we haven’t shown enough backbone or fight.

Ben Green and Tom Lammonby had put on 50 for the first wicket but they lost 10 for 85 in less than 30 overs. Mohammad Abbas was the star of the show with 4 for 22.

"The opening partnership was a positive but coming in after that we let them down after their hard work," Abell, whose side host Essex next week, added. "We lost wickets in clusters, we need to be better at starting our innings and show a bit more fight in the middle.

"We’ve very aware of it [problem with collapses], we tried to address it over the winter. We need to try not to panic.

"This is a game where we have been disappointing but I think it is more the mental aspect of the game. 

"I did see strides amongst the group and we mustn’t catastrophise things ahead of a big game against Essex next week. We start our season next week now."

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