Yorkshire CCC thwarted in bowler search and then by the Hove weather
ANTHONY MCGRATH has said that Yorkshire were frustrated in their search to sign an overseas bowler for the County Championship run-in.
The club’s head coach admitted that they considered the option after Imam-ul-Haq was recalled by Pakistan.
Yorkshire effectively replaced like-for-like, signing Indian batsman Mayank Agarwal to deputise for Imam at the top of the order.
However, given the injuries sustained to the bowling department, with pace men Ben Coad (hamstring) and Matt Milnes (groin) having missed recent matches, Yorkshire looked at the foreign market.
Asked whether an overseas bowler would have been the preference, with Yorkshire now planning their overseas strategy for next season, McGrath said: “Yeah, if we could have got one.
“But it’s just been so hard to get someone in for a short space of time.
“Getting seamers at this time of year has been really difficult, so, yeah, it’s something that we’ve looked at, of course, with all the injuries that we’ve had, but we’ve not really been able to find anyone.
"It’s not easy finding players at this time of the year.”
Agarwal, who has never previously played county cricket, was recruited for the last three Championship games.
He had big shoes to fill, with Imam scoring 688 runs in eight One-Day Cup matches, including four hundreds and three fifties, to help Yorkshire into the semi-finals, where they were beaten by Hampshire.
The 29-year-old is still the leading run-scorer in this year’s competition ahead of Hampshire’s Nick Gubbins on 669.
Gubbins will have the opportunity to overtake him in Saturday’s final against Worcestershire at Trent Bridge, albeit he has already played two more innings.
“Iman was fantastic for us,” said McGrath.
“It wasn’t just the runs; it was the way that he was with the other lads and how he talked them through things on-and-off the field.
“That’s where that bit of experience comes in. You need experience, as Imam showed, and it’s a pity that he wasn’t able to stay a bit longer.”
Agarwal, 34, who has played 21 Tests for India, the most recent in March 2022, is a more-than-handy replacement on paper. At present, he could be forgiven for wondering what he has let himself in for, after a stop-start beginning to his Yorkshire career.
It has mostly been “stop” due to the weather, with Agarwal having to wait until the fourth and final day of his debut against Somerset at Taunton last week to play his first innings.
He duly fell for a golden duck and then spent the opening day of Yorkshire’s match against Sussex at Hove on Monday twiddling his thumbs along with everyone else after bad weather prevented play on the south-coast.
“Yeah, look, I think it’s one of things, isn’t it,” said McGrath of Agarwal’s debut. “We were trying to bat out the day, it was a half-ten start, the ball was nipping around a bit - it was probably alien conditions for him.
“But, look, he's looked good in practice and, as I say, it’s one of those things - first-ballers can happen to anyone.
“He’s a quality player and hopefully he will get the opportunity to show that in the next few days.”
There was a fleeting sight of Agarwal for the handful of Yorkshire supporters who had travelled down to Hove.
As everyone waited in vain for play to start, Agarwal could be seen doing laps of the ground as he walked around the boundary, looking distinctly chilly in the gale-force wind.
It was the wind, which reached gusts of more than 50mph, that kept the players off the field as opposed to rain or a wet outfield, with just one or two sharp showers interrupting mostly pleasant sunshine.
The winds were apparently a safety issue for the groundstaff who were consequently unable to get the covers off the square to start the mopping up process following wet conditions here on Sunday.
The covers were kept in place by around 40 tyres that looked like black draughts on the white squares of a chessboard. The tyres proved of particular interest to the seagull population, which seemingly mistook them for pieces of discarded black pudding as they pecked away at every opportunity.
Tom Lungley and Jack Shantry, the umpires, did their level best to get the game going.
There was an initial 10am inspection ahead of the scheduled 10.30am start, then an early lunch taken at noon.
A torrential downpour - just at the time that this correspondent foolishly ventured into town in search of an edible sandwich - put things back further, with additional inspections at 1.30pm and 2.30pm. An early tea was taken at 2.40pm and another inspection made at 3.30pm, when the umpires took the decision to call off play.