Jake Lintott says the development of 19-year-old leg-spinner Tazeem Ali has been “awesome to watch.”
Ali has played a huge part in Warwickshire’s challenge in the 2025 Metro Bank One-Day Cup. His five-fors in successive games against Northamptonshire and Kent have helped lift the Bears into the qualifying places in the group with three games to go.
Lintott himself has also been highly influential with both bat and ball. He has also taken a five-for, while his runs were vital to the victories over Northamptonshire at Rugby and Somerset at Taunton.
As the senior wrist-spinner in the squad, Lintott does all he can to advise his young team-mate – but says the help and support is far from a one-way street.
“We work together a lot and try to help each other,” he said. “As a cricketer, you always pick up useful bits and pieces from others as you go along. As a senior player, my role is to help Taz as much as I can, while contributing to the team myself, but we definitely help each other.
“I have learned from watching him bowl so skilfully in the Metro Bank One Day Cup. When he took his five-fors, I saw how he was always threatening the stumps, and I took that into the Middlesex game and got some wickets myself.
“It is great to have a couple of wrist-spinners making an impact. Taz is a brilliant prospect. He has the skills and also the temperament and calmness you need when batters are coming hard at you. He stays strong under pressure, has great control and has reaped the rewards during this tournament. It’s hard to believe that he is still only 19. It has been awesome to watch his development.”
The two wrist-spinners have been pivotal to Warwickshire’s rise to third place in the group ahead of the away double-header coming up at Lancashire on Friday and Durham on Sunday. The Bears will travel to Liverpool buoyed by a fantastic win over a strong Somerset side at Taunton, where they chased down 309 thanks heavily to Lintott’s maiden List A half-century – a stunning 50 from 36 balls in the town of his birth.
“It was a special day,” he said. “I was brought up on a farm in West Somerset and still have family and friends here, so it was great to come back and do so well. I took up our entire quota of complimentary tickets! Mum, Dad and my girlfriend were here, and it was great to see them part of such a big crowd, which created an awesome atmosphere for a 50-over game.
“I have been working hard on my batting because it’s an area of my game I need to improve if I am to add value to teams. It’s great to tick off a milestone in my career with a first List A half-century.
“We thought at halfway in the game that Somerset’s score was around par and that the pitch would get easier to bat on as the day went on. There was a very short boundary on one side, so we were quite confident of reaching the target. It was a great win which leaves us in a good position in the group ahead of the two away games at the weekend.”