ROSS TAYLOR will lead Sussex in their opening game in the NatWest T20 Blast tonight.

The New Zealand international has been handed the captaincy with Luke Wright still sidelined by a back injury.

Wright was named in the squad for the clash with Gloucestershire at Bristol but Sussex have decided it is too much of a gamble to play him when he is not 100 per cent fit.

Ben Brown has skippered Sussex in the County Championship while Wright has been sidelined this season but head coach Mark Davis is keen to ease the pressure on the wicketkeeper who was only installed as vice-captain during the winter.

Taylor, 32, has plenty of experience of captaincy having led New Zealand in all formats between 2011 and 2012 and Davis believes he is the perfect candidate to inspire Sussex in the absence of the talismanic Wright.

Davis said: “Ross has played internationally and in the IPL so is vastly experienced in Twenty20 cricket. You need to be cool in your decision-making in Twenty20 and he is the ideal character for that.

“Ben has done a fine job in four-day cricket but it is very demanding captaining as well as trying to focus on keeping and batting so I wanted to take some of the pressure off him. If Luke is not ready for the next Championship game then Ben will be captain again so it is no reflection on the job he has done at all.

“Ben will now be able to relax and concentrate on his own game and it is great we have someone of Ross’s calibre ready to step in and take up the challenge. He his very highly respected in the dressing room because of what he has achieved in the game and I’m sure he’ll inspire the team to put in a strong performance.”

Davis expects Taylor’s captaincy to be a one-off with Wright targeting the Championship game against Derbyshire next Saturday for his comeback with the second game in the NatWest T20 Blast against Somerset at Hove on June 1.

Wright’s absence means Sussex will be without three key players with Chris Jordan and Mustafizur Rahman currently playing in the IPL but Davis sees it as an opportunity for young players like Harry Finch and Phil Salt to grab their chance.

Davis added: “Obviously we’d like to have everyone available but a lot of the other sides are in the same predicament. We expect to have CJ and Mustafizur with us soon but it gives others a chance to show what they can do and make it hard to leave them out in the future.”