Jack Shantry is relishing his role as one of the elder statesmen in the Worcestershire dressing room – at the age of 28.
With Alex Gidman having to retire and Moeen Ali predominantly on England duty, Shantry is the second most senior player after skipper Daryl Mitchell.
But he feels ready to be an 'ear' for any of the young promising players at New Road should they want any advice.
Shantry said: "When I first entered the dressing room as a young player, it was a very young dresing room.
"Players like Vikram Solanki were the players you looked up to. Graeme Hick had just gone and the year I joined a lot of players went – Gareth Batty, Simon Jones, Stephen Moore, Steve Davies.
"Especially with Gareth Andrew going as well, I'm probably the oldest bowler on the staff this year. Matt Henry coming in is quite young as well.
"The oldest bowler on the staff is strange really because I'm only 28 and still feel I'm yet to peak as a bowler in these next three or four years.
"But I've learnt my trade very well, I feel that in the last couple of years I know what I'm doing when I'm bowling so I feel that I can be an 'ear' for the younger bowlers.
"We've got some very experienced youngsters as well, people like Joe Leach who has been named vice-captain now. Charlie Morris has had a couple of seasons behind him and has a very old head on young shoulders.
"Then you've got people like Ed Barnard as well who is only 20, Joe Clarke is only 19. Josh Tongue is only 17-18 so we've got some young players so hopefully I'll be able to help them out during the season, to bounce ideas off as well.
"It is a role I'll be looking forward to."
*We will be featuring interviews with Jack Shantry and spinner Ben Twohig on the Worcestershire CCC website during the next few days.
