HAMEED MAKES HIS ASHES MOVE
Opener finds form in battle of top two
Warwickshire boss Ashley Giles will not allow his side’s transformation in T20 cricket this season to paper over the cracks of their wretched form in the County Championship.
Warwickshire were beaten by Nottinghamshire in the T20 Blast final at Edgbaston last Saturday with a youthful side that was unrecognisable from the one that started the tournament in July.
The Edgbaston side struggled again here against Somerset, all out for just 146 in their first innings, but they have yet to feel the benefits of the youthful exuberance of Adam Hose, Dominic Sibley, Sam Hain, Aaron Thomason and Ed Pollock in Championship cricket and it is an older and very different side that has taken them to the brink of relegation.
“We are fully aware of where we are,” Giles said. “It still feels that there is a big difference between our red ball side and our white ball team. Some of that is confidence. When you find your momentum you just run with it.
“We haven’t had that in red ball cricket. We are not playing good enough cricket.Your stats don’t always tell the whole story but, over the season, when you look at our averages we have two guys who have got 23 wickets and one guy who has got over 500 runs.You ain’t going to win much with that.
“It’s a big concern, we have still got much to do and we understand that. We are fighting and scrapping to stay in Division One, but that might not be possible. I have heard arguments that it might be best to go back and come again but that’s never the ideal and it’s certainly not what we are looking at right now.”
Giles, who returned to Warwickshire as director of sport in January from a stint as Lancashire’s director of cricket, has already started the process of regenerating his squad with Rikki Clarke, Ian Westwood, Ateeq Javid and William Porterfield having already retired or moved on and more high profile departures seem certain over the next two years.
“I’ve got tough decisions to make and ultimately I have got the responsibility of us playing good cricket and being competitive. We can’t stand still,” he said.
“The one thing that any of our players cannot do is to stand still or to rest on what they have done in their careers and their averages. We have to keep moving forwards.”