Will Rhodes knows champions Warwickshire will have target on their backs
Skipper Will Rhodes admits Warwickshire must get used to having a target on their back when they make their defence of the County Championship this summer.
The Bears are back in training and ramping up preparations for the new season, which begins on April 7 when they host Surrey at Edgbaston.
Rhodes’ team were somewhat surprise champions last year, capping a remarkable transformation in the club’s red-ball fortunes by clinching the title in dramatic fashion on the final day, before then going on to win the season-ending Bob Willis Trophy at Lord’s.
But while confident his team are capable of repeating the triumph, the skipper knows they will not fly under the radar this time around.
“Rather than looking to shoot down those teams we think might be better than us, we are the ones who are going to be shot at,” he said.
“Teams will come to Edgbaston looking to take points off us and will make it very hard at their grounds to get results.
“We are going to have to come up with different tactics at times, potentially. But the method of winning always stays the same no matter how good you are. We have learned how to win games from all angles and we know we have the credentials to go again.”
There is a good chance the Bears will be stronger this time around. Seamer Olly Stone, who missed the second half of last season and England’s Ashes tour with a stress fracture of his back, is hoping to return to action in May. Highly-rated all-rounder Henry Brookes has also returned after missing almost all of last year through injury, while the signing of Alex Davies from Lancashire should strengthen a top order which at times has been fragile.
Warwickshire last won back-to-back titles in 1995, at a time when Dermot Reeves’ team were the dominant force in county cricket. Rhodes says those victories now serve as inspiration to the current crop as they look to prove last season’s triumph was the start of a new era, rather than a one-off.
On that note, Rhodes has welcomed the return of the two division structure to the championship, after the – rather harsh – claim from some quarters that last year’s conference format made the title easier to win.
He said: “There was a lot of chat about whether we were fully deserving of the championship title because of the points carried across from the group.
“Obviously we feel we were definitely deserving but two division cricket will show the best team in the competition. We actively welcome it.
“Did it annoy us? No, not really. It just gives people more motivation to win again this year.”
Rhodes believes the five championship rounds scheduled for June and July – an increase from three last year – could prove pivotal. Otherwise the majority of red-ball matches will again take place in April, May and September.
“We had a meeting about how we want to go about this season and the point was raised about how few teams defend the title,” continued Rhodes.
“Quite often they have a poor season and some even get relegated. We don’t want to be that team.
“Teams who win multiple championships in a row are the ones who get remembered.
“Warwickshire had a great side in the 90s who had a very successful three or four years and were fantastic.
“I guess you look up to them and the success they had and you want to replicate that.
“This is a huge club but probably hasn’t had a period of sustained success in its history apart from that. We’ve got an opportunity to try and repeat that.”
