Dillon Pennington has become the third member of the Worcestershire CCC pace attack to sign a contract extension and is confident the squad can challenge for honours in all formats during the next two years.
Pennington had 12 months remaining of his current deal but has put pen to paper for a further year until the end of the 2023 season.
He follows in the footsteps of Adam Finch and Charlie Morris, who have also extended their stays at New Road during the past week.
The former England Under-19 player confirmed his promise with some excellent performances last summer, including a first five-for and match figures of 9-76 in the home LV=Insurance County Championship match against Derbyshire.
Pennington also turned in some fine efforts with the ball during the powerplay overs in the Vitality Blast before being part of the Birmingham Phoenix side, which reached the final of The Hundred.
But the 22-year-old is keen to strive for more consistency in red ball cricket and improve his all-round skills in T20.
Pennington said: “I’m so happy, and I can’t wait for the season to start. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens over the next two years, and hopefully, as a side, we keep growing and getting better and compete for trophies over the next couple of years.
“Can the side challenge for honours? One hundred per cent. I think we’ve got a brilliant team, a strong squad now, which will grow even more.
“I think we’ve got a strong team that can do it in all formats. We’ve seen in the Blast that we were really competitive for most of the tournament down to the very last group game.
“Also, in the red-ball stuff, we can challenge in that and are going to get better as a side over the next couple of years and start challenging more.”
Pennington has played 25 first class and 36 T20 matches since making his first team breakthrough in 2018.
He said: “I said at the start of the year that I want to try and get myself a consistent spot in the first team squad, and that’s still my aim.
“I’ve still got to try and in-bed myself in the bowling unit. This year was a starting stone for me to playing a lot of cricket, and hopefully, in the next couple of years, I can keep getting better and keep evolving my game and hopefully try and cement myself (a spot).
“There is really good competition, and it only makes you get better because you’ve got to work that bit harder in training, have to do that bit more.
“You’ve got to keep looking at your skills and see where you can get better, and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do at the moment and in the winter and find where I need to get better, what I need to work on.
“Is consistency the big thing? That is the aim, trying to put together performances, put together four-day games, trying to do the basics as much as you can.
“That’s key for me. I just want to try and be as consistent as possible, bowl the ball in the right areas as many times as possible, and hopefully, the natural movement gets me rewards.
“Next year, the good bits from this year, I need to do more of.”
Pennington destroyed Derbyshire with his performance at New Road and wants more of the same in 2022.
He said: “It was really good. It was quite special. I was desperate to get my first five wicket haul, and it was really good to get it then.
“I would have liked to follow it up with another, but hopefully, there are more to come in the next couple of years.
“It is something to keep building on and replicate next summer.”
His performances in the Vitality Blast included a deadly opening burst of 4-0 against Yorkshire at Headingley.
Pennington said: “I’ve just got to learn the bits and pieces about T20 I don’t know at the moment.
“I can’t just be a powerplay bowler. I want to try and improve my middle and death overs, and that is something I will be working on over the winter.
“Hopefully, I will have a couple more skills next summer which will improve my white ball more and hopefully help the team out more.”
Head Coach Alex Gidman said: “We all feel that Dillon is an exciting prospect, but he is still very early in his career.
“He has had some good experiences, and he has had some tough ones, but we see that potential in him and are very excited about watching him develop.
“We will be working very hard with Dillon to try and get as much experience into him as quickly as possible to improve the consistency of his performances.”
