Steve Rhodes believes the group of players not involved in Worcestershire's LV = County Championship draw with Hampshire can help freshen up and energise the squad for tonight's NatWest T20 Blast clash with Derbyshire under the floodlights at Derby.
Richard Oliver, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Colin Munro, Gareth Andrew, Chris Russell and Brett D'Oliveira did not feature against promotion rivals Hampshire at New Road this week and are part of the Rapids 12 man party.
Director of Cricket Rhodes admits the other players needed to rest up and recharge their batteries after a recent hectic programme and being in the field for more than two days against Hampshire.
He said: "The guys needed desperately to rest up on Thursday, which is what we spoke about, and try and recharge the batteries of the guys who are going to be playing on Friday.
"There are a few guys coming into contention for that T20 spot that will have been rested up so they will be fresh and that is quite a nice position to be in when we dovetail in some of the players.
"It just gives the guys who play all of the games some energy."
Rhodes says this season's schedule has been hectic but insists it is the same for all teams – and worse for some.
He said: "It's been quite heavy the workload, but it is the same for all teams. It's probably worse for some of the teams with some of the travelling you have to do from Durham, Kent, Essex, Hampshire, Somerset.
"Some of the travelling is quite extreme so I think of the positive and we are in the Midlands and there is a little bit less travel."
Worcestershire currently top the North Group and will be looking for a fifth successive win in the competition this evening.
Rhodes said: "Being top is terrific news and we've come off the back of four wins now.
"The first two games (At Durham and Lancashire), I wasn't totally disappointed. I was quite surprised we didn't win because we didn't play bad cricket."
