Yorkshire Vikings’ Jordan Thompson hoping he and fellow ‘Blast Brother’ Harry Brook can have another productive season

“It’s a little bit cringing, but we’ll take it.”

The Blast Brothers are Thompson and his Yorkshire team-mate Harry Brook.

The pair blasted themselves into the record books against tonight’s opponents Worcestershire at Headingley last summer.

Yorkshire were 50-5 when ‘The Blast Brothers’ came together in the 11th over of the game.

What followed was an unbroken partnership of 141 from 56 balls - an English sixth-wicket record for T20 and the second-highest for that wicket worldwide - as the Rapids were ravaged in a run-scoring spree.

Brook bashed 83 from 54 balls with six sixes and four fours, and Thompson thrashed 66 from 28 balls with five sixes and five fours. They lifted Yorkshire to a closing score of 191-5, Worcestershire replying with 179-5 to lose by 12 runs.

“It doesn’t seem like two minutes ago since that night,” reflected Thompson, who was man-of-the-match. “Hopefully me and Brooky can recreate something like that and have a good start to this year’s comp.

“I took massive confidence from that game moving forward into the rest of the competition and through the summer and into the winter. It kickstarted quite a good year for me, and the onus is on me to take the experiences that I’ve had in T20 now and to make sure that I’m a consistent performer.”

There is a quiet confidence that Yorkshire could finally crack T20 this year, with the club having consistently stumbled in the format. Thompson is part of a talented squad that would seem to have the tools to reach Finals Day at least, with Yorkshire having missed out last year at the quarter-final stage.

“Looking back to last year we were gutted not to get through that quarter-final (against Sussex) because it was in our own hands really moving towards the last four or five overs,” said Thompson, with Sussex pulling off a late heist thanks to some remarkable hitting from Rashid Khan.

“But we’ll take the positives that we had from last year and hopefully start well.

“Obviously the personnel is a little bit different this time and it’s a very strong team. Hopefully I can do some special things throughout the comp - not just in a couple of games - and play my part.”

In addition to the firepower he provides with the bat (Thompson has the world’s seventh-highest T20 career strike-rate of those who have faced a minimum of 250 balls (165.03), the 25-year-old is part of a varied attack.

Yorkshire have recruited well and with transparent ambition by signing overseas players Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf and Finn Allen, who will dovetail at various stages, with Thompson having come up against Shadab, who makes his Yorkshire debut tonight, at the Pakistan Super League.

“I’ve played against Shadab in the PSL and he performed really well out there, with bat and ball, so to have him in our squad as a wrist-spinner along with Rash (Adil Rashid), and then Bessy (Dominic Bess) as well, we’ve got some great control through the middle overs,” said Thompson.

“Our death bowling last year was good with Lockie (Ferguson) in; it was a spot that we really had to fill. We’ve got Haris this year who will take up that role and hopefully perform well, and then after Haris goes lads are going to have to step up to the plate as death bowlers.”

In the meantime, “buckle up and get ready for the ride” as Rob Key, the managing director of England men’s cricket, really did say after the appointment as Test coach of Brendon McCullum.

‘The Blast Brothers’ are coming to a cricket ground near you...