WCCC logo

Ashley Giles’ update on winter training

Director of Cricket, Ashley Giles will be keeping Bears’ fans updated with news on winter and pre-season preparation throughout the winter, through this site.
 

“A fantastic start from the England batsmen, with both Jonathan and Ian making important and confidence building runs at the start of the series.
I spoke with Jonathan  prior to the Brisbane Test and understandably he was nervous, but that century must have set him up for the remainder of the Ashes, while Ian just looked to have taken the confidence and assurance he showed in domestic cricket at the end of last season, on into International cricket.
I won’t be travelling to Australia to watch any cricket this winter, but from what I’ve seen, England seem to me to be as well prepared going into a Test series as is possible.
Back here, the players based at home for the winter have returned for training.
Will Porterfield and Laurie Evans our new signings have been working hard although Will goes off to India with Ireland after Christmas.
There’s a lot of one-to-one work with the batsmen, as they work on their technique with plenty of net sessions, while the bowlers are all working hard with Graeme.
Dougie has already been hard at work with the senior players and the Academy squad who have four new players in their ranks this winter. Jack Cornick and Tom Payne have joined the Academy from last year’s Under 17 squad, while Peter McKay and Basit Zaman were part of the Under 16 group of players last season.
It’s crucial that the players work hard at this stage of the year and weekly visits to the David Lloyd Centre, the Gym and the Blue Coat School for 5 a-side football are all essential building blocks in the process of constructively and clinically making improvements.
On the injury front, both Rikki Clarke and Keith Barker are recovering well from hernia and knee operations, while Naqaash Tahir is well on the road to recovery after surgery at the end of last season and Boyd Rankin is re-couperating well from a stress fracture of a metatarsal in his right foot.”