Ed Barnard chasing elusive maiden century and place in Worcestershire middle order

OWEN RILEY: Barnard scored 516 runs at 23.45, hitting three fifties last year in Division One. The previous summer yielded 580 at 36.25, five fifties and a career-best 75 against Durham during the Pears’ promotion charge

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Worcestershire allrounder Ed Barnard says he is striving to feature in the club’s middle order.

The 25-year-old, who spent his winter with Scarborough CC in Perth, looks back on the 2018 season as a frustrating one with the bat.

“I was slightly disappointed with my batting last year having gone from the previous year where I was really happy with it,” he tells The Cricketer.

Barnard scored 516 runs at 23.45, hitting three fifties last year in Division One. The previous summer yielded 580 at 36.25, five fifties and a career-best 75 against Durham during the Pears’ promotion charge.

That top score of 75 rankles with Barnard, who admits the lack of a three-figure score plays on his mind.

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Ed Barnard wants to make an impact with the bat in 2019

“It’s a bit of a monkey on my back at the minute. I see myself as genuine allrounder so I’d love to get myself as high up the batting order as I can.

“The end goal would be to bat in the middle order but for the balance for the team, wherever they ask me to bat I’m more than happy to.”

In Joe Clarke - who opened his Notts account with 112 and 97 not out against Yorkshire - the club have seen a ready-made run machine leave, but Barnard feels the side has recruited shrewdly to make up for that loss.

He says: “It’s a big blow for us losing ‘Clarky’, but we’ve offset that with Riki [Wessels] coming in. With him and Callum Ferguson we’ll score plenty of runs.

“Everyone is positive. I don’t see any reason why we can’t go straight back up.

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“I see us challenging, not only to go back up, but in the two white-ball competitions as well.”

Much of that confidence stems from the bowling attack at the New Road club’s disposal.

“When ‘Leachy’ [skipper Joe Leach who missed much of last season due to a back stress fracture] comes back that will be a massive bonus for us,” says Barnard.

“That’s really exciting for the club. We all know how good a bowler he is so that will be good to have him back in the set-up.

“Tonguey [Josh Tongue], we all know the quality that he’s got. Along with Wayne Parnell coming back, I see us having one of the strongest attacks in the competition.

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Barnard sees himself as a genuine allrounder

“We all compliment each other, we’ve all got slightly different strengths. Even our back-up bowlers are strong. You look at people like Dillon Pennington - he was exceptional whenever he played for us last year.

“We’ve got Adam Finch and George Scrimshaw too. We seem to be doing well at producing these big quick lads at the moment!”

Since 2003, Worcestershire have earned promotion to Division One six times in 16 seasons. They know the formula of how to get out of the second tier.

Sticking around in the top division is another matter, with club failing to stay in Division One for more than two seasons in that time.

Barnard is backing the current crop to buck that trend.

“We’ve got to get there first, but if we do manage to reach Division One, we’ll do everything we can to stay there,” he says.

“The way the club is growing and the young squad we’ve got coming through, there’s no reason we can’t be a solid Division One side if not better.”

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