Assistant & Bowling Coach, Steve Kirby, believes Derbyshire’s new left-arm quick bowler can be the difference when he gets his opportunity to perform at The Incora County Ground.
21-year-old Michael Cohen joined Derbyshire over the winter and his first pre-season with the club has been curtailed by the current coronavirus outbreak.
Kirby praised the Derbyshire squad for their professionalism and maintaining individual training routines, and believes that when the opportunity arises, Cohen will provide a new dimension to the bowling attack.
“The players have been doing brilliantly keeping fitness levels high, but as a coaching team it will be our job to get them back up to speed,” he told The Cricket Paper.
“Ideally, to get a bowler ready for four-day cricket you need 10 weeks to build up their chronic load – the number of overs you can bowl in a day.
“It’s a bit like marathon training in that you need to taper up and taper down with the aim that they can get through 30 overs in a day.
“It may be that we only need to get them ready for white ball stuff, but even that will take four to six weeks.
“When he first came over, I invited him [Michael Cohen] to live with me. He needed somewhere to stay and I wanted to build a relationship with him,” he explained.
“Trust takes years to build up but it can be lost in minutes – I wanted to let him know that I will be there for him,” he explained.
“It goes against the club’s philosophy – bringing on local lads is a huge priority for us – but this guy bowls 90 mph plus and will give us the X-Factor.
“We needed someone who can lift us when things go flat, and he will do that with his pace and yorkers.”
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