Take a look at Gareth Roderick’s record over the past six years with Gloucestershire and it shows he’s done pretty much everything you can on a cricket field.

He’s opened the batting, kept wicket and captained the county championship team – and on a good number of occasions he’s done all three jobs at the same time.

And you get the impression that if he wasn’t behind the stumps, he’d have had a bowl as well.

“I did used to do a bit of bowling when I was growing up,” laughed the 26-year-old, “but it was dirty, dirty off-spin.”

But while his bowling back in the day may have been dirty, all Roderick is hoping for now is a clean bill of health as he looks ahead to the new season.

The one-time Cheltenham player has been hit by illness and injury which have slowed his progress over the past couple of seasons and he admitted: “I just need to make sure that I can get out on the park.”

That’s something Gloucestershire fans the length and breadth of the county will be hoping for too because a fit and in-form Gareth Roderick will strengthen pretty much any side in the country.

And despite his setbacks in recent times Roderick is going into the new campaign – which begins with a County Championship Division Two game against Kent in Canterbury on Friday 13th April – in a confident mood.

He won’t be captain – opening batsman Chris Dent will lead the side in the county championship and 50-over cricket this season – but that will allow him to concentrate very much on his own game.

“I want to bat in the top four or five and I want to keep wicket,” he said. “I like batting at the top of the order because that’s where you get the chance to bat for a long time.”

Born in Durban in South Africa, Roderick admits he has “always enjoyed giving the ball good a whack” ever since he first picked up a bat more than 20 years ago.

The wicketkeeping came later. “I didn’t start keeping wicket until I was 18 but it’s something that I love doing and something that I want to continue doing,” he said.

“If I can keep wicket and bat in the top four or five I’m able to offer something that very few other players can.”

Roderick has been unlucky with a number of finger injuries over the past three or four seasons but said: “I could have had those injuries while just being a fielder. I’ll just have to make sure I catch the ball in the middle of the gloves!”

And Roderick, who completes his seven-year England qualification period in February next year, is desperate to be out in the middle in both red-ball and white-ball cricket.

He averages over 37 in the first-class game and was part of the Royal London One-Day Cup final winning side in 2015.

But last season he missed the county’s 50-over campaign because of illness and wasn’t selected for any of the T20 games.

“I want to play in all formats,” said Roderick. “I’ve always played white-ball cricket before and it’s something I really enjoy.

“I’d love us to go all the way to T20 finals day at Edgbaston. We’ve had a 50-overs final at Lord’s and that was amazing but to play on finals day at Edgbaston would be something special.

“We’ve come very close in the past and Edgbaston is a great ground for that form of cricket.”

And while Roderick, a British passport holder through his mum, would love nothing more than to taste success in the T20, he admits that it is still the four-game that gives him the greatest satisfaction.

“I grew up watching Test cricket,” he said. “As a batsman that’s where you get the chance to really bat. That’s where you can face 300 balls and make a really big score.”

And while that is a lot of balls, Roderick is not one of those who is happy just to grind out a big score.

“I like to get bat on ball,” he said, “perhaps too much at times. I think if you are scoring at around three-and-a-half runs an over you are leaving your bowlers enough time to take 20 wickets.”

That’s sound thinking of course and Roderick has certainly proved in the past that he has the pedigree to make big totals with a first-class best of 171.

If he can rediscover that sort of form this season Gloucestershire’s prospects for the coming campaign will improve immeasurably.

“I want to play at the highest level I can,” he said. “I want to play representative cricket and I want to play in Division One.”

Gloucestershire fans would love nothing more than to see Roderick achieve both those aims in the next year or so.