Worcestershire legend and spin bowling coach Norman Gifford believes Ben Twohig "has a good chance" of making his first team breakthrough this summer.
Former County skipper Gifford has been working closely with England Development Programme spinner Twohig throughout the winter months.
He is impressed with Twohig's willingness to listen and learn as he looks to become the latest of a long line of Academy products to step up eventually into the senior squad.
Gifford, who ended his career with 2,068 first class wickets, said: "Ben has come along really well but he is 17 coming on 18.
"He is a sensible boy, he knows he has still got a lot to learn but he works hard and he listens which is a good thing.
"His prospects are good, he has got a lot of things going for him but we just need him to get an opportunity and then to kick on.
"I think he has got a good chance of playing. It will do him the world of good.
"It gives you another idea of what the path is and he has got to get onto the path and start to walk down it to find out how far he can get."
Twohig has been impressed with Gifford's sense of anticipating what is going through a batsman's mind and the 76-year-old insists it is a key part of a spin bowlers armoury.
Gifford said: "It is part of what he has got to learn. It is one of the things. You look back to Shane Warne and the knowledge he had, not just of the game but of the batters he bowled against.
"As a spinner, more so than the quicker bowlers, you survive on that type of knowledge of looking at batters and knowing not just how they play but their temperaments and what you think they are going to do.
"You try to work that out when you are bowling at them and things like that are what we talk about and it is important to have that type of focus."
