Assistant Coach Alan Richardson has challenged Worcestershire pace bowler, Adam Finch, to have the same self-belief and trust in his ability as the coaches have in him at New Road.
Richardson believes Finch will become an even more potent and consistent force if he has that faith and confidence in what he is capable of producing.
The 22-year-old will be looking to build on his previous home appearance when Worcestershire take on Essex tomorrow in their penultimate Royal London Cup encounter.
Finch, who is part of a 14-strong squad, returned his List A best figures of 3-54 against Derbyshire last Sunday and also bowled impressively in the away game with Hampshire.
He also picked up the key wicket of Northamptonshire’s Ricardo Vasconcelos for 70 on Wednesday but has not quite replicated those performances in a couple of other matches in the competition.
Richardson, delighted to chalk up a splendid seven-wicket win at Northampton, said: “Adam is slowly growing with more confidence. We can see what he can do. We believe in him, and he’s been in and around the squad for a long time now.
“He’s had some opportunities. For him, he has to believe in himself as well, believe he can do it.
“He bowls, quickly, like Josh Tongue, bowls with good pace, gets bounce, got good control, so he has to believe in all those qualities he has, and trust in them because we do.
“If he does that, and does it consistently, then I think we will see more and more consistency in his performances as well.
“In the Royal London Cup games so far, he has bowled really well at Hampshire and the last game here against Derbyshire and in two, Scarborough away and Lancashire away, he will admit himself it wasn’t quite up to where he hoped it would be.
“The challenge for him is to have that belief and confidence in what he delivers and, if he does that, he’s got more chances of performing as he did against Derbyshire.”
Finch has played 17 first class, 12 List A and six T20 games at senior level in his career.
Richardson said: “He has played a lot of white-ball games compared to a lot of other people at his age. He has played a lot of red ball games for someone his age.
“I look back and, at the same stage of my career, I’d played one white ball game and one university game.
“He probably hasn’t had the run of games he would have liked but he has represented this club well over 30 times at senior level. That is a lot for someone his age.
“Hopefully, he is learning every time he is out there, gaining that valuable experience from playing in first class cricket at whatever level that is.
“It will come. As I say, the big one for me is having that real belief and confidence that we have in him in his own game.”
Richardson confirmed that Azhar Ali, the Rapids batting hero against Northamptonshire, is ruled out of tomorrow’s game with a hamstring injury.
He suffered it during the latter part of his innings and needed a runner in Gareth Roderick, but it did not stop him from making a superb century.
Richardson also confirmed that Reeve Evitts would return to the squad after playing for an ECB X1 against Sri Lanka Under-19s at Loughborough.
