Another in the series of 2008 equipment, today I’m looking at Gray Nicolls!

Nothing revolutionary for this traditional company on the face of it, with just a slightly updated look throughout most of the range. They put out some good quality kit despite it not being particularly leading on the innovation side.

Probably their most popular range of the past couple of years, the Predator, has been superseded, and on the face of it the Nitro looks like the replacement. The shape of the bat looks similar, albeit with some more modern graphics. However, when you see one of these bats in the flesh, you’ll be surprised at how they’ve made the edges as huge as they are yet kept the bat amazingly light. Maybe a bat for the batsman who likes to nick through the slips!!

The Fusion has been a success in the modern world of enormous bats, and helped by Matty Hayden using one to great effect in all international cricket recently. I very nearly bought one of these last year, but I was worried the bat would be too heavy over longer periods of time (academic really, I was never batting for a long time!). A cracking bat though and if I was in the financial and skill position to have two separate bats, this would be one of them I reckon.

The Viper was never a big seller, but has been updated and is the lightweight bat in the range for the player who looks to play more nimble and who wants a bat more similar to the legendary “GN Millennium”.

So, nothing that immediately jumps out and screams “buy me”, but good quality kit and a fan base that will keep returning will see another decent year for Gray Nicolls. But where is the excitement, the “wow” factor?!