Robinson: “We feel we’ll come home stronger”

Mark Robinson believes his side will return to Edgbaston stronger after spending 12 days in the Abu Dhabi sun.

The travelling party, who arrived back to Birmingham on Friday, gained some valuable playing and training time on good wickets after spending the winter in the Indoor School.

During the first week, the Bears lifted the Abu Dhabi Counties Super Cup after three wins from three, before getting 175.5 overs in the legs through red ball cricket.

“We’ve thoroughly enjoyed it,” said the First Team Coach. “We’ve had excellent facilities and it’s been brilliantly organised so that’s a big plus. We’ll obviously reflect on how we can make it better next year, but we’ve had objectives going into the tour.

“We wanted to bring the boys together, get to know each other more, remind us of the standards we want to live by and give opportunities for players to press their claims for places in the T20 or red ball.

“The T20 matches came first and we were thinking about the Blast, which isn’t until the end of May. Over the last few days we’ve been thinking about red ball and that’s not far away.

“We’re looking forward to getting Hass [Ali] amongst us, whilst watching eagerly how Liam’s [Norwell] has gone the last few days and Yatesy from a hamstring niggle.

“We’ve come through unscathed, touchwood, without any fresh injuries or niggles and we’ll go home stronger for this last 12 days.”