Tons will come for 'top batter' James Wharton, says Anthony McGrath
IT was not so long ago that people were questioning Joe Root’s conversion rate in Test cricket but now every time the Yorkshireman gets to fifty you would bank on him to get a hundred.
It can happen to the best of them, in other words, and Anthony McGrath, the Yorkshire head coach, has no doubt that one of Root’s county team-mates, James Wharton, can start converting more fifties into centuries in the County Championship.
Wharton, 24, has had a curious season. In 18 innings in the four-day competition, he has reached fifty six times and played very well, too, with a top score of 78 against Surrey at Scarborough last week.
Prior to that, the tall right-hander hit 69 against Durham at Chester-le-Street; 63 not out and 61 against Essex at Chelmsford; 67 against Surrey at The Oval, and 58 against Nottinghamshire at Headingley.
In 10 of those 18 innings Wharton has reached at least 25 and also produced some good innings in T20, with a season’s best of 88 against Worcestershire at Headingley.
Now, as Yorkshire return to Scarborough to take on a fifth-placed Sussex team four places but just 21 points above them in the Championship, McGrath has backed Wharton to register more centuries - two so far in his first-class career, with a highest of 285 against Northamptonshire at Headingley in the final game of last season.
“It's frustrating for Wharts (that he’s not had more hundreds) because he works so hard, but it’ll come,” said McGrath.
“I think everyone can see that he's a player, and I think it's just getting that one and then hopefully he can get on a run like Rev (Matthew Revis, who has hit two hundreds in successive games).
“Every time Wharts seems to get himself in and looks comfortable, so that’s certainly a positive.
"I’ve got no worries whatsoever about him. He's a top batter.”
Wharton’s maiden first-class century was another biggie - 188 in an innings victory against Derbyshire at Chesterfield last season.
His other first-team century was a riotous, unbeaten 111 against Worcestershire in the T20 at Headingley two years ago.