KENT CRICKET SEASON PREVIEW
Alex Blake is frustrated at still being unable to make his mark in Championship cricket. Blake claims 2015 was the best year of his career to date but revealed his frustration that his sparkling limited overs form has not translated to the longer format of the game.
Blake, 27, has made just 29 First Class appearances over eight seasons at the club and has spent the past three summers splitting his time between packed houses at T20 and ODC grounds and the desolation of the 2nd XI circuit.
However, he insists he is not just a white ball player and refuses to close the door on a County Championship future.
Blake admitted he had been flattered by interest from Sussex last summer but agreed a new deal at Kent in September after scoring more than 500 runs in 20 one-day innings, including an average of 50 in Kent’s run to the Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-finals.
Blake also topped Kent’s 2nd XI Trophy batting statistics with 296 runs in the one-day comeptition at an average just short of 99 after hitting 151 and 97 not out in his final two appearances last summer.
However, he scored just 148 in seven innings for the 2nd XI in the longer format of the game – at an average of less than 25.
Despite that, Blake did receive a recall to the Championship side in September, three years after his previous appearance, although the clash with Gloucestershire was washed out after 15 overs without him seeing the field.
Blake said: “It’s the same as I say every year. I still don’t want to shut that door. I want to play all formats for Kent.
“I’ve just got to play my way. I can’t go out and try and be someone I’m not.
“For me that’s being positive. I think I’m capable, it’s just getting that belief like I did the last couple of years of T20. Getting that mindset right, believing I can be there and score runs in that format.”
Blake admits he only has himself to blame for his prolonged absence from senior red-ball cricket but claims the challenge is motivating himself in front of sparse crowds at county outgrounds.
He said: “That is the tough part of it. Playing in the 2nd team, you play at grounds that aren’t great in front of one man and his dog. It is tough to motivate yourself for that but I guess that’s the place I’ve put myself in by not scoring runs and getting myself in the four-day team.
“I am in the one-day format so you play in front of a decent crowd at the Oval and two days later you can be playing at Maidstone in front of nobody.
“That is tough. It’s up to me to use that as motivation to get out of that. I want to be playing four- day cricket but it’s down to me.”
Blake said it wasn’t his style to badger coach Jimmy Adams and captain Sam Northeast for playing time.
He added: “They probably don’t know what I am capable of but I don’t think it’s down to me to be shouting-off, saying I should be doing this or that.
“You just have to let your performances take care of itself. Then they have got to pick you, I guess. That’s the way I look at it.”
Blake
admitted
2015
was probably the best season of his career but admitted to lingering disappointment at quarterfinal exits in both one-day competitions.
Blake hit an unbeaten 71 from 30 balls, putting on an unbroken 108 with Northeast to snatch an incredible five-wicket win at Hampshire last May.
The pair steered the visitors from 70-5 to 178-5 and victory in a game screened live on Sky Sports.
Blake admitted: “For me, last season was one of the highlights of my career. For the first time I felt like I was a big player in that side.
“It all started in that second game at the Ageas Bowl, it was on TV, it was a remarkable win and I guess the confidence grew from there.
“Throughout the tournament I went out with that confidence, got the job done a few times and got on a bit of a roll.
“I think the thing about me is that I’ve always been capable of doing that, it’s just having that confidence and belief that I am one of the players in the side that is capable of winning games.
“I got there hopefully can season.”
Blake split his winter between indoor training and fitness work at Kent – including a foray into the world of yoga – with an eightweek stint training and playing club cricket in Cape Town alongside Calum Haggett, Ivan Thomas, Adam Ball, Adam Rouse and Imran Qayyum.
He also worked on his off-spin bowling in the nets but added: “My main focus is to carry on with what I’ve done well and also keep up with the fielding because that’s one of my strengths as well.
“If at any time I can bowl in the nets or a warm-up to help batters out, it can only help me to develop it and you never know. But for now it’s on the back-burner.” last year and carry on this
Pictures: Barry Goodwin