Head of Cricket David Houghton says Derbyshire are confident of recruiting a like-for-like overseas bowler to replace Kane Richardson for this summer’s Vitality Blast campaign.
The former Zimbabwe international is naturally disappointed with Richardson’s withdrawal, but Houghton says the club will wait for the right opportunity to recruit a replacement that will complement the squad.
“It’s a little bit disappointing but at the same time we have got our irons in the fire and we are looking for a replacement.
“There are plenty of very good T20 specialist bowlers around for us to look at and that’s what we are looking for, a fast bowler who can open and close the innings.
“We definitely won’t be jumping at any options, we saw in our 50-over campaign that those are the areas we need strengthening, particularly at the end of an innings.
“That’s what we went for with Kane [Richardson] and that’s what we’ll be looking for in a replacement.
“I think we have a talented squad and we played some really good, entertaining cricket throughout the 50-over competition. We didn’t qualify but we were competitive in every single game.
“There are areas that we need to strengthen and hopefully our second signing for the T20 competition will help us do exactly that.”
Houghton reflected on a positive start to the season for Derbyshire, which sees them top the Specsavers County Championship Division Two table after two matches.
He also hopes that Derbyshire can build on their positive start to the season and put themselves in contention to win some silverware this summer.
“I think we have had a good start to the season, we had a good couple of Championship games and got what we could out of the games but there is always room for improvement in a long season.
“It’s early in the season to be looking at the table too closely but it’s nice to be at the top side instead of the bottom.
“We have a run eight games in a row now in the championship and we need to make sure by the time the T20 competition starts that we are well up the table and in contention.
“We proved in the 50-over competition that we are a very good batting side and we chased some big scores down well.
“We also recognise there is one or two deficiencies that we need to work very hard on as well between now and the start of the T20, and hopefully we’ll get an overseas player in who can help us in those departments.
“As I said at the start of the season, we compete in three different competitions and we wanted to win all three because there isn’t much point entering them if you don’t think you can win them.
“I think we can certainly get ourselves into contention to win the next two competitions in the four-day championship and the T20 tournament.”
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