Robson happy ahead of Pears contest

Angus Robson feels that the recent performance against Sri Lanka shows the club is in a healthy position as they resume Specsavers County Championship action against Worcestershire at the FCG on Sunday (11am start).

Leicestershire is unbeaten in 2016 and have deserved more than one victory from their first four Specsavers County Championship matches. Games against Kent, Sussex and Northants could all have been won had large periods not been lost to the weather.

The display against Sri Lanka was just as strong despite nine changes being made to the side that was forced to settle for a draw against Northants and that encouraged Robson, who enjoyed the experience of leading the team in the absence of Mark Cosgrove.

“It was my first time captaining at professional level and I was proud to do it, it was a great honour for me to captain this club,” he said. “It was a really good performance from the team against Sri Lanka and the whole club has taken a lot from the game. It was a key few days for us.

“When you take into account that nine changes were made from the last Specsavers County Championship match, it was a team of guys that have mostly been playing in the Second XI. It shows that they are all pushing the main side and that is a great position for the club to be in.

“All of the bowlers stuck at their task, the batsmen did very well and everybody got a good chance. It was very impressive from the lads.

“We’re not getting carried away at the club but the first five first-class games shows that we have turned the corner and are a completely different outfit now.”

The team were previously in control of the contest against Northants at the FCG, picking up 11 points from a third consecutive rain-affected draw to take their tally to 59 from four matches.

All told, Leicestershire has lost just one of their last nine Specsavers County Championship fixtures in 2015-16 and has picked up 28 out of 32 bonus points so far this term.

The team has posted first innings scores of 427, 401-9 dec, 473-8 dec, 332 and 375-5 dec in their first-class matches to date with Mark Cosgrove, Neil Dexter, Paul Horton and Mark Pettini all having posted centuries along the way.

Clint McKay is the club’s leading wicket-taker with 17 taken at an excellent average of 21.00 while Ben Raine and Wayne White are also into double figures.

Elite Performance Director Andrew McDonald has been pleased with the start and feels that the Pears will provide another good test on Sunday.

“We’re playing some good cricket, we have challenged the guys to be consistent and they have backed up performances so far this season.

“Worcestershire is a side that has come down from Division One, we spoke about Sussex being a bit of a yardstick for similar reasons and we went down there and measured up okay, so it’s another opportunity for us to see where we are at.”

All-rounder Rob Taylor is added to the squad that was named against Northants in the last Specsavers County Championship game, so Leicestershire will select from 14 players.

Worcestershire have seen Brett D’Oliveira and Joe Clarke in tremendous form so far this season, scoring 473 and 360 runs at 118.25 and 72.00 respectively.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore also enters the game in fine fettle after smashing 127 off just 54 balls against Durham Jets in the first game of NatWest T20 Blast last night but Worcestershire will be without the influential Moeen Ali, who is away on England test match duty against Sri Lanka.

Joe Leach, Matt Henry and Ed Barnard are the Pears’ leading wicket-takers, claiming 14, 13 and 11 respectively so far.

Leics (from): Horton, Robson, Dexter, Cosgrove (capt), Pettini, N O’Brien (w/k), Ali, Wells, White, Taylor, Raine, McKay, Naik, Shreck.