Ben Coad has dazzled, delighted and delivered in equal measure in the Specsavers County Championship this season, and Yorkshire teammate Tim Bresnan is already certain the sky is his limit.
The Ripon fast bowler has seemingly come from nowhere to be Yorkshire’s key star this season, taking 22 wickets in his first three four-day matches.
But the performances have caught the county scene rather by surprise, barely playing a professional game prior to his wowing performances.
Injuries to Ryan Sidebottom, Jack Brooks and Liam Plunkett to name a few opened the door for Coad, however, leaving Bresnan confident that the 23-year-old still has bigger ceilings to break through.
“Momentum is a funny thing and currently he has that, hopefully he can carry that through to the end of the season,” said Bresnan, speaking at the launch of this season’s Royal London One-Day Cup.
“You don’t want to put a limit on how high he can get, it all comes down to motivation which he has so much of right now, and whether he can stay injury-free.
“In professional sport, you have to make the most of your opportunities and Ben has done that excellently well.
“It’s going to be a real selection headache when the guys come back – he was probably underneath all those guys and he’s gone to become one of our go-to seamers.
“If he can keep producing those sort of results then he’s pretty much made himself undroppable.”
The impressive nature of Coad masked what was a disappointing start to the season for Yorkshire, 12 points off the lead with one win to their name so far.
They did make it through to the quarter-final stage of the Royal London One-Day Cup however, with seven wickets for Coad in his three matches in the group stages.
That included 4/63 for the opening bowler against Derbyshire, a match the White Rose won by just 15 runs.
And Bresnan sees no reason why his form cannot continue, unsurprised by his development having operated in close quarters over the winter.
He added: “He’s worked on his skills very well. Head coach Andrew Gale and Richard Pyrah have come in with some plans about what they want to see from individual players and the direction and role they see them playing.
“They’ve come with some very specific targets which was perhaps lacking previously, and we’ve been able to see how well he’s taken that on board.
“He’s worked on his game very hard and he looks like a different bowler now. He was easily the best bowler in pre-season by a street length and he’s gone into that first game with a load of confidence having bowled really well.
“I think the most impressive thing is that he kept going, went and got ten against Warwickshire and is top of the wicket pile, he’s feeling confident.”
As proud sponsors of the One Day Cup, Royal London is giving away match tickets to see the action live. Visit royallondoncricket.com to enter.
