Who are the players to watch? Who’s in the squad? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What is the fixture list? Your questions answered
Head coach: Alex Gidman
Captain: Joe Leach
Overseas players: TBC
Players in: Gareth Roderick (Gloucestershire)
Players out: Olly Westbury (released), Ben Twohig (released), Wayne Parnell (Kolpak)
Fixture list: April 8 – Essex (a); April 15 – Derbyshire (a); April 22 – Nottinghamshire (h); April 29 – Essex (h); May 6 – Warwickshire (a); May 13 – Durham (a); May 20 – Nottinghamshire (a); May 27 – Derbyshire (h); June 3 – Durham (h); July 11 – Warwickshire (h)
Remind me what happened last year?
After an abject red-ball campaign in 2019, Worcestershire were much improved in the Bob Willis Trophy. It was only a defeat against Somerset in the final round of matches that prevented them from topping the Central Group. Even so, no team came closer in the round-robin phase to beating Jason Kerr’s side.
The previous year, Joe Leach’s men had lacked runs – having finished eighth in Division Two of the County Championship with just three wins, they only picked up 20 batting points all year and reached 400 just once. In five matches in 2020, they passed that figure three times.
Jake Libby, a new recruit from Nottinghamshire, scored 498 runs at 55.33, while Daryl Mitchell deserved immense credit for his returns – 384 runs a 42.66 during a period when he spent much of his time overseeing a challenging year for the Professional Cricketers’ Association. Brett D'Oliveira added 367 runs, while Tom Fell managed an emotional first hundred in five years.
And while that red-ball improvement was offset by a difficult T20 Blast campaign, it will give the New Road side confidence ahead of the new season.
Worcestershire captain Joe Leach
What’s happened over the winter?
There was briefly some concern over the future of long-time wicketkeeper Ben Cox, before being nipped in the bud. Regarded by many as the best gloveman in the country, it was announced during a members’ forum in February that he had rejected a contract extension, only for him to agree fresh terms a month later, allaying any fears that one of the club’s prize assets might leave his home county.
He has been joined in putting pen to paper by young fast bowler Mitchell Stanley, who has agreed a rookie contract.
Off the field, Worcestershire emerged from the 2020 financial year with a profit despite the difficult circumstances. The club’s total turnover for last year was £4.1million and showed a pre-taxation profit of £56,434. After tax and deductions, they emerged with a profit of £21,635 – a stark contrast to 2019 when the county lost over £81,000.
The club also repaid £582,096 of its debt, reducing the total debt to £3.7million compared to £5.6million in 2016.
Who’s arrived and who’s left?
Gareth Roderick has joined on a three-year deal, which for a short while added to speculation around Cox’s future, given the former Gloucestershire captain’s ability with the gloves. He is the latest in a line of acquisitions to add external knowhow to an otherwise homegrown batting line-up: Libby and Riki Wessels have both previously signed from Nottinghamshire in recent years.
The search for a red-ball overseas player goes on, however. They were heavily linked with South African spinner Keshav Maharaj as an all-format signing and they are believed to have been close to agreeing a deal in December. With Moeen Ali’s availability as yet unknown and left-arm spinner Ben Twohig released at the end of last season, if no specialist spinning option is brought in, the burden will fall on D’Oliveira’s leg-breaks. Gidman’s charges could be helped, therefore, by the early scheduling of the County Championship group stage, which will likely favour the club’s talented, youthful seam attack.
They have, though, lost Wayne Parnell, who was at the club as a Kolpak player and has now joined Northamptonshire as an overseas recruit. For the T20 Blast at least, his void has been filled with the signing of Sydney Sixers seamer Ben Dwarshuis.
Who will be the key men in 2020?
Daryl Mitchell: The club stalwart is no longer the PCA chairman but has taken up a new role with the organisation as director of cricket operations. Having managed to continue churning out red-ball runs last year even in spite of a daunting off-field workload, Worcestershire will hope the slightly eased burden on his shoulders allows him another successful season as a linchpin of the four-day batting order.
He is stepping away from 50-over cricket this year too, so will want to make the most of his opportunities at the crease.
Jake Libby: A terrific piece of business based on last year’s returns. Only Sir Alastair Cook managed more runs than his haul in the Bob Willis Trophy as Libby gave his new club the top order solidity for which they had been crying out.
Whether he can do the same over a longer season is the next challenge, especially with Moeen likely to be absent for the vast majority of the red-ball campaign. The signing of Roderick will help to ease the pressure, while Fell’s return to form in 2020 – including a hugely popular first century for five years – gives further reason for optimism.
Josh Tongue: The same hope is true of the seam attack, full of young talent and plenty of skill. Tongue’s 14 wickets in four red-ball games last year offered a reminder of his ability. Still only 23, despite injuries he has taken 124 first-class wickets at 24.49 apiece since his debut in 2016.
In Leach, Dillon Pennington, Charlie Morris and Ed Barnard, the club’s leading wicket-taker in 2020, there are plenty of options to exploit the conditions through April and May, before perhaps scouring the globe for an overseas spinner to wreak havoc in the latter rounds of the red-ball season in late-summer.
One to watch?
Jack Haynes is only 20, but Worcestershire are keener than most counties when it comes to backing their own talent. He made plenty of starts in the Bob Willis Trophy, passing 20 in all but one of his nine innings.
In all, it meant he averaged 40.71, making two fifties. The challenge now for the right-hander – a former England Under-19s batsman – is to turn those elegant cameos into something more substantial. One thing’s for sure: he’s at the right county to get his chance.
What can we expect from this team this season?
After an excellent – albeit shortened – campaign last year, Worcestershire will harbour high hopes of replicating that success this time around. Well run, with a clear on-field strategy and a commitment to developing their own players, they have every chance, even in a mightily competitive group.
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