SQUAD THOUGHTS
Being a Kiwi with no Leicestershire knowledge, the first thing to do was to suss out the squad I had available.
At first glance, it seems like there's a fairly solid backbone to the top and middle order of the batting, but the bowling stocks look rather woeful.
Perusing the transfer market, my first priority was to bring in a decent bowler, so 26 year old slow left armer Bradley Wadlan stood out like a sore thumb.
He was happy to join us on a three year contract.
Amongst the youth players available was a batsman averaging 55.
I was sorely tempted to try and snap him up as well, but I figure that I'll need a good number of coaching and physio sessions, so I sadly had to pass the opportunity up.
My initial thoughts are to prepare home pitches suited to spin and going in with at least two spinners, probably Wadlan and Jigar Naik.
Charlie Shrek looks like he's seen his best years, so Anthony Ireland and Alec Wyatt are likely to share the new ball initially.
So that I have some left arm variety, I'm thinking of starting Rob Taylor at number seven, rather than Dan Redfern.
The top six are likely to be Greg Smith, Michael Thornely, Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Ned Eckersley, Shiv Thakor and Niall O'Brien (keeper).
Amongst the other batsmen, Angus Robson looks like he could develop into a useful opener if required.
Amongst the other bowlers, Ollie Freckingham and James Sykes could well be required to make contributions throughout the season.
Being a Kiwi with no Leicestershire knowledge, the first thing to do was to suss out the squad I had available.
At first glance, it seems like there's a fairly solid backbone to the top and middle order of the batting, but the bowling stocks look rather woeful.
Perusing the transfer market, my first priority was to bring in a decent bowler, so 26 year old slow left armer Bradley Wadlan stood out like a sore thumb.
He was happy to join us on a three year contract.
Amongst the youth players available was a batsman averaging 55.
I was sorely tempted to try and snap him up as well, but I figure that I'll need a good number of coaching and physio sessions, so I sadly had to pass the opportunity up.
My initial thoughts are to prepare home pitches suited to spin and going in with at least two spinners, probably Wadlan and Jigar Naik.
Charlie Shrek looks like he's seen his best years, so Anthony Ireland and Alec Wyatt are likely to share the new ball initially.
So that I have some left arm variety, I'm thinking of starting Rob Taylor at number seven, rather than Dan Redfern.
The top six are likely to be Greg Smith, Michael Thornely, Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Ned Eckersley, Shiv Thakor and Niall O'Brien (keeper).
Amongst the other batsmen, Angus Robson looks like he could develop into a useful opener if required.
Amongst the other bowlers, Ollie Freckingham and James Sykes could well be required to make contributions throughout the season.
Comment