We joined Alex Davies for an early morning dog walk in Solihull where, when not keeping his 15-week-old puppy out of trouble, he spoke of his record County Championship run haul, the honour of being Bears captain, and reflections on the 2024 season.
It’s 8am on a mid-October morning. The 2024 season is only three weeks out but the air has a chill that leaves you in no doubt winter is trundling in off a short run-up.
Alex Davies, his spaniel-lab cross, and mischievous pup largely have the park to themselves bar a handful of other hardy dog walkers.
It’s the kind of morning to be present, relax, and clear head space.
But when you’re Warwickshire Captain, cricket is never far from your thoughts.
“When things are going well you can get out here; it’s just you and the dogs,” said Davies. You can be very much in the present. Clear my head. But if things aren’t going too well, your mind drifts to thinking about games, what you could have done differently both personally and collectively.
“I don’t tend to bump into many Warwickshire fans on the walk. I’m just Alex the dog walker out here. No-one giving me tactical advice in the park! The season is very hectic, it’s hard to get time to yourself so these moments are important to try and recharge.
“All the guys take time away in October. As a player it was a chance to completely remove yourself from cricket for a few weeks, but as Captain I’m already involved with discussions around recruitment, strategy, and how we can improve.”
Only two players scored more runs than Davies in Division One of the County Championship last season. He amassed a career-high 1,115 runs, a tally that saw him named in the PCA Team of the Year.
His Vitality Blast captaincy record over the last two years reads won 20, lost six, and Bears topped the North Group for the third straight year.
But after two white ball knock-out stage defeats, and just one red ball win, it’s a season that will ultimately be looked back upon as a disappointment.
Davies acknowledges that leading a Club like Warwickshire, with its rich history and passionate supporter base, comes with high expectations.
He said: “It’s not the season any of us wanted; it was disappointing. We want to be up there challenging at the top of the Championship. And we lost another quarter final in the Blast. We need to address that as it’s happened too often.
“But we have to stay positive, and look at the positives. We have grown into a dominant white ball side in the last three years; we’ve topped the group for three years in a row so must be doing something right.
“And we’ve produced two young England players, in Jacob Bethell and Dan Mousley, through the way we play. So we’re confident we’re doing most things right.
“We’ve set ourselves a high bar with our group performances. But we need to turn that into a Finals Day. People say it was good we lost to the eventual winners. I don’t see it that way. It means we missed an opportunity as it could and should have been us.
“We also had a lot a lot to contend with. I remember at the start of the season, looking at our bowling attack of Olly, Rushy, Norwell, Hassan, Boothy, Milo, Barney, and Rhodes, plus Woakesy now and then, I felt we had a really good chance. Or to at least be challenging for the title.
“But then we had guys going down injured one a week for the first few weeks. I’m not looking for excuses, but this is the fact of what happened. As long as we can say fit, I think we’ll be up there challenging next season.”
Davies’ decision not to enforce the follow-on at Essex and bold declaration at Somerset – two games that ended in defeat from dominant positions – have been questioned by supporters and commentators.
But Davies, who recently turned 30, said they were tactical calls made having weighed up all the information at hand.
“There wasn’t a plan at the start of the season to make bold, gung-ho decisions,” added Davies. “Both of those calls were made given all the information we had available. That information isn’t always known to people not directly involved in the game.
“The Essex game was damage limitation for our bowlers. I didn’t want to risk putting them straight back out again and one maybe picking up an injury, we’d suffered enough injuries already. The amount of runs we were ahead, it shouldn’t have mattered. But we get bowled out cheaply, batted poorly and let them back in.
“Somerset was a case of looking at the table, thinking if we win it we’re right in the hunt to challenge the top two. That was a more aggressive decision. But we didn’t bat well on day three. We were ahead and could have accelerated more and got 450 on the board. The pitch flattened out and they batted well.
“Those defeats really hurt. But the decision making was positive, we wanted to win. And we were denied wins on two occasions (at Lancashire and Hampshire) when the weather stopped us when we were on top.”
Davies is Warwickshire’s 37th Club Captain. The honour of the role is not lost on him.
“Every time I go on the pitch and I’m leading the Bears it’s a bit of a pinch me moment,” he added. “Walking past the Captain’s board every day at Edgbaston, seeing my name up there next to some greats in the Club’s history is humbling.
“Despite the challenges, I’ve enjoyed it. It demands more of your time, more so than being just a player.
“But I’d say I’m a player first, a Captain second. I still want to be up there getting a good volume of runs. Sometimes I probably try to do too much around the group. To take too much on.
“As Captain you want to be the man and take responsibility. You want to send a message to the boys in terms of your performance.
“I scored well this season, but don’t know if that’s anything to do with the captaincy. I’m older, more experienced, and I feel settled at the club now.
“I worked on a lot ahead of last season and during the summer. Work on the mental side as much as technical. Staying mentally strong and focussed to bat for longer periods. For me it’s about getting more consistency and I’m hungry for more.”
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