Worcestershire First Team Coach Alex Gidman has praised the impact made already by Hamish Rutherford – on and off the field.
Rutherford has become only the second Worcestershire player to score centuries on his first class and List A debut for the County after Phil Jaques in 2006.
But Gidman has also been impressed with the contribution of the New Zealand batsman away from the middle.
He said: “Hamish’s contributions have been exceptional since arriving. Off the pitch he settled in very quickly, his character fits into our dressing room.
“We are enjoying having Hamish here, obviously were thrilled with his performances but I’m really pleased for him personally.
“He clearly came very motivated to do well and so far he has done, I’m sure he’d love to carry on contributing before he heads home.”
Gidman believes Worcestershire’s players have reaped the benefits of sticking to simple plans – and implementing them effectively – during their successful start to the season.
An innings victory over Leicestershire in the Specsavers County Championship was followed by a 125 run win over Lancashire in the Royal London One-Day Cup.
Now next on the agenda is the return meeting today with Leicestershire in the One-Day Cup at the Fischer County Ground (11am start).
Gidman said: “I’m pleased for the players. They worked extremely hard over pre-season and during the winter but they are under no illusions that the season has barely started.
“There are no guarantees as to how those first couple of games are going to go. However good or bad your pre-season was, there is always that element of unknown.
“But the group have executed our plans well, which has put us in some good positions and they’ve taken advantage of them.
“We all know what good cricket looks like, but doing it is very hard. We’ve put a real focus on our practice, they are practicing how they want to play and they are going out and executing.
“They know they’ve played some good cricket already that they can take confidence from, but I’m always wary of where we can improve.”
As regards another encounter with the Foxes, Gidman said: “We will focus mainly on us and what we are trying to do.
“That will be our objective. However, we will respect our opposition, put some thought into Leicestershire and the challenges they will give us.
“But I think on the whole, whoever we play against, we will focus on what we are trying to do as well as we can and then go from there.”
