Worcestershire are no longer the new kids on the block, says Ed
AFTER finishing third last year, Worcestershire are targeting promotion from Division Two – and seamer Ed Barnard revealed ahead of their match with Northamptonshire today that they no longer regard themselves as a young team.
Worcestershire have successfully integrated players from their academy in recent years, including Barnard, Ben Cox, Joe Clarke and Tom KohlerCadmore and, under new captain Joe Leach, have the look of a well-balanced side.
They couldn’t have asked for much more from their first match of the season, where they thrashed Glamorgan by eight wickets, with Barnard taking two wickets and making 59 with the bat.
But in the months ahead, they’ll be looking to make sure there’s no repeat of the way a bright start eventually petered out last year.
Barnard said: “The ‘young team’ tag is something that’s been around for the last few years, but I think that we need to come away from it.
“Although we’ve got quite a lot of young players, we’ve also got a lot of experienced ones and there’s actually quite a lot of first-class games behind us.
“It’s something that Leachy is trying to install in all of us that we need to get away from thinking of ourselves as a young team and show the experience and quality that we’ve got now.
“For the next few months, we’ll really start to see the direction that Leachy wants us to go.”
It promises to be an intriguing match at New Road between two teams who have begun the new season impressively, although it will struggle to match the drama of Northants’ win at Derbyshire.
The decision to try and force a result on the final day paid off as they secured victory with a ball to spare and they’ll now be looking to continue their best run in the Championship (five wins on the trot) since 2003.