Worcestershire Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes says big-hitting Ross Whiteley will learn from and become a better player after his experiences with England Lions at the finale of the thrilling T20 series with Pakistan 'A' in Dubai.
Whiteley made two important contributions with the bat during the series with 23 off 15 balls and 29 off 20 deliveries in two of the matches.
But he was restricted to five not out from 12 deliveries at the climax of England's run chase in the final game which they finally won via a Super Over to triumph 3-2 in the series.
Rhodes, who was part of the Lions coaching staff, said: "If you ask him, he was disappointed that day. His strike rate was low.
"Credit to Pakistan, they bowled really well at him, but he just chose one of those days, which is very rare for Ross because he is such a beautiful striker of the ball. He either missed it or it hit him on the pad and he couldn't get the ball away.
"We really should have won that game before the Super Over but those are experiences. It wasn't a nice experience for him and he felt he had let the side down. They are not nice experiences for people but you do become better from those sort of experiences.
"You become battle-hardened and learn from them and I'm sure he will.
"He had some good little knocks. Even one knock when he got six off three balls but it actually was an important six.
"That sounds a little bit silly but that's the nature of T20 cricket sometimes. One ball can make such a difference.
"He had a nice 29 not out where he hit some sixes.
"Overall with Ross, I'm sure he would have loved to have done well in that last game just to finish things off for the tour but sadly it was tough. They bowled quite well and he didn't quite execute as well as he would have liked."
Rhodes said Whiteley might be employed at an earlier juncture in T20 Blast matches next summer with the Rapids.
He said: "We played Ross in the role he has played for Worcestershire a little bit which is bringing him in the last eight overs of the game. He is used to that type of role.
"He was playing around some very good batsmen. The reason they are in the Lions set-up is because they are good batsman.
"It was the type of role that he might not play for us next year. We might give him a little bit of a nudge earlier in the contest in Twenty20 over cricket.
"But, when you have got good players around you like in that Lions squad, that was the role he had to play later on."
