Rapids vs Falcons Preview: Roderick Sets Performance Target

Gareth Roderick wants to play every first-team game this season, believing Worcestershire’s great team spirit will help them deal with the current injury crisis as they prepare for their final Vitality Blast match of the summer.

The wicketkeeper-batter has played all of this season’s competitive matches so far in the Vitality County Championship and Vitality Blast, with the Metro Bank One-Day Cup next up after the National Counties warm-up match against Wales at Sudbrook on Sunday.

At the end of last season he spoke to Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson to discuss whether he could be back in the side this summer.

Roderick has remained fit despite eight players, mainly from the bowling department, being sidelined ahead of the Rapids’ remaining Blast fixture against Derbyshire Falcons on Thursday at Visit Worcestershire New Road (kick-off 5.30pm).

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But he says Worcestershire’s strong mentality is evident in the dressing room.

He said: “It is important that everyone works together to get through this injury crisis. That is one of the things we have always done.

“The mentality is one of ‘next man up’ and you have to have that because you really have no other option.

“We’ve always had a good team spirit and there’s a kind of team spirit in the dressing room, so not much changes.

“We are missing a lot of players and we just have to support the next player who comes and does the job for us.

“What makes it even harder is that almost all of them are bowlers. That’s the part that makes it really challenging.

“It’s all one side of the ball, but if it’s spread across the whole squad, at least you’ve got a few guys batting and bowling.

“But because we are all bowlers, it is quite difficult when you have a small team like ours already trying to compete in three formats.”

Roderick added: “When you see players dropping off in the middle of a game (Matthew Waite and Hayden Walsh), you start to think that things are not going your way and that the forces are working against you for the season, but that is not the right way to think.

“These things happen. It’s just unfortunate that it happens to all of us at the same time. Hopefully it’s different degrees of injuries, so hopefully some of those guys can be back soon.
“It’s a very unique circumstance. I’ve never experienced it this bad before.”

Roderick didn’t play a single T20 match this summer, but all things being equal, Thursday will be his 14th consecutive appearance in 2024, making him a regular, having also appeared in all nine Championship matches.

He said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed playing and I set myself the target at the start of the year to play every first-team game.

“Knock on wood, unless an injury occurs and my form deteriorates. And if I am selected, I will be available for all games.

“Hopefully at the end of the season I can look back and say I played every game of the year and I’m really proud of that.

“I spoke to Alan and the coaching staff at the end of last year and set myself the goal of playing every first-team game this summer.

“Hopefully that can continue and at the end of the summer I can look back on an injury-free campaign in which I played a lot of cricket.”

He added: “I’ve really enjoyed the T20 and also batting in different positions. It’s also been really fun to try and bat in different scenarios, to try and do different things.

“Obviously I haven’t played much T20 cricket in the last few years so it’s been quite a learning curve. I’ve learned a lot about myself and how to approach things in T20 again.

“I’ve done some nice things and disappointed myself in other areas, but I really enjoy playing it, how fast it is and the crowd and the atmosphere is a bit bigger and louder.”

Thursday’s competition is sponsored by NANT – Water Safety Specialists.

Worcestershire Rapids
2 Jake Libby
3 Josh Cobb
7 Ed Pollock
9 Gareth Roderick (with)
11 Rehaan Edavalath
12 Tom Taylor
13 Henry Cullen
14 Olly Cox
15 Brett D’Oliveira (c)
41 Harry Darley
77 Ethan Brookes
88 Rob Jansen