Worcestershire on lookout for early-season overseas addition to complement new-look seam attack

The New Road county have already brought in uncapped New Zealander Nathan Smith for the entirety of the summer, as well as Pakistan leggie Usama Mir for the T20 Blast

Worcestershire are looking to bring in a second red-ball overseas player, with an eye on the first tranche of County Championship matches as they return to Division One for the first time since 2018.

The New Road county have already brought in uncapped New Zealander Nathan Smith for the entirety of the summer, as well as Pakistan leggie Usama Mir for the T20 Blast. Azhar Ali is not set to return in 2024.

But chief executive Ashley Giles told the club's inaugural Three Pears Chat vodcast that he was on the lookout for another import, perhaps adding to a seam-bowling cartel that, while adding Smith, has lost Josh Tongue, Dillon Pennington, Pat Brown and Mitchell Stanley over the winter to moves elsewhere. They also saw Charlie Morris retire due to injury during last season.

"We are looking at that area, and we have a couple of niggles within our bowling attack, so we may well go for a second overseas player – particularly in those first seven games," said Giles.

"We've talked about how difficult and challenging Division One could be, and it's important we try and start well. So, I want to give (Alan Richardson) as much support as I possibly can and as much firepower as I possibly can, so we're certainly looking at it."

Worcestershire have had to be busy this winter, with Tom Taylor arriving from Northamptonshire, Ethan Brookes making the short journey from Warwickshire, Rob Jones coming in from Lancashire and Yadvinder Singh signing via local club cricket and the South Asian Cricket Academy.

^{New Road has faced another winter of flooding (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)}

"Bringing the right people into the club is the No.1 thing," added Giles, who is in his first winter at Worcestershire. "When you sign players for two, three, four-year contracts, you have to get the right people. I'm really comfortable and happy with the business that we've done at the end of last season.

"The temptation is when you lose so many players, you almost just play Whac-A-Mole and try to fill the gaps. But we've done much more than that, done our homework."

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Giles also admitted that the continued, regular flooding of New Road was opening his eyes to the possibility that Worcestershire might one day in the not-too-distant future have to leave their iconic home ground.

The venue flooded again on Friday, with some considerable doubt surrounding Worcestershire's first home game of the season – on April 19 – against Durham.

Should that become unfeasible, The Cricketer understands that Kidderminster Cricket Club would host. There is past precedent for that, but it is a stark reminder of the unique challenges faced by the groundstaff at the county.

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