martin guptill hopes to reap the benefits of his first elongated break from cricket for several years when he makes his worcestershire debut in today’s specsavers county championship clash with lancashire at New Road.
the new zealand star has had two and a half months away from the middle since playing a plunket shield match for auckland in early april after a hectic winter which included a thrilling odi series against england.
guptill says he is “refreshed and ready to go” as he prepares to play two championship and eight vitality blast matches for worcestershire.
the 31-year-old said: “i’ve had about 10 weeks off which has been really good. i certainly needed a break at the end of our summer so to have that time off was great.
“it’s the longest break i’ve had for a long time. i can’t tell you the last time i had a break like that. it was well needed.
“but i did some training, made sure i got myself fit and strong and now i’m ready to go now.
“i’m away from home for three months this time around and then i’ve got a month off and then we head to the uae with new zealand to play pakistan. it’s all well mapped out.
“does it become like a treadmill? it’s our job and we love doing it. we just go out there and play with our heart on our sleeves and you get on with it.
“if you are playing all three formats, you are away from home a long time and you miss your family. that’s probably the hardest part about it.”
guptill arrived at New Road and witnessed the end of the narrow royal london one-day cup semi-final setback against kent.
he said: “you have to bounce back. it is a pretty quick turnaround from sunday to the game against lancashire.
“as cricketers, you learn pretty quickly to move on from things.
“if you hold onto things, and you are not worrying about things in the present, that’s when you nick off or you are not concentrating about what is going on and you don’t have quite such a good day.
“it’s one of the key things as cricketers is to learn to put things behind you and move on fairly quickly.
“it will be my first taste of division one cricket. i’ve played division two a few times. i’m looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and giving it a go and getting the miles back in the legs over the next four days.”
