Worcestershire Head Coach Alan Richardson believes Adam Finch will be “a huge part” of a new look attack for the 2025 campaign.
Richardson says Worcestershire are “trying to build that seam bowling attack up again” after the loss of half a dozen players through retirement or switching counties during the past two years.
He sees Finch as having a key role to play if he can put the illness and injury frustrations of last season behind him.
The 23-year-old is currently recovering from the knee injury which ruled him out of the majority of the second half of the summer.
Finch had topped the Worcestershire bowling averages with 28 wickets in seven Championship games during the promotion winning season of 2023.
Richardson said: “Adam had some real ambitions, and quite rightly, to try and kick on for further honours. Last year again for him was slightly frustrating in terms of injury and illness.
“I thought he started the season well for us and then we rested him against Kent to make sure he was going to be ready for The Oval and all guns blazing, and then he was ill so he couldn’t play in that game.
“It never really got going for Adam last year and then he had the knee injury during the T20s. He battled his way back to try and play in the last few games, which didn’t quite work for him, but he still played an important part in the home game against Kent.
“I think a really frustrating season for him but it is just part and parcel of being a fast bowler that not everything goes swimmingly in terms of your body.
“He has put in a good couple of shifts in the previous two winters in Adelaide and so I don’t think it is going to be the end of the world if he doesn’t do that this year.
“He will be really fresh by the time we get to the start of the season and no doubt will be really chomping at the bit to do really well.”
Richardson added: “What we look at, after losing quite a few players, we are trying to build that seam bowling attack up again and Adam is a huge part of that and it will be a squad effort throughout the season.
“We saw that last year, we’ve seen it every year and it will be the same again, so it will be important for Adam to be an important part of that.
“If he can play the majority of the games for us, and we can manage him through that, just as we will everyone else, then we will be in a good place and so will he.
“In the last two years, the seam bowling attack looks very different. Charlie Morris and Joe Leach have retired, Mitchell Stanley, Pat Brown, Dillon Pennington and Josh Tongue have all left the club.
“In two years, we’ve lost six players, and six very good players, and Adam is one of the only ones left standing from that time. Him and Ben Gibbon were here with us two years ago and I think everyone else has left.
“It is important we try and build that up again. We believe we’ve made some good acquisitions and we’ve also internally been able to promote a couple of guys in Jack Home and Harry Darley who have come on board.
“Fingers crossed, we build that again, but we know it’s always going to be a squad effort to get through the amount of cricket that have to be played and at the intensity it is played.”
