Jim Troughton was speaking to Brian Halford following the Bears opening County Championship defeat to Kent at Edgbaston.
Warwickshire first-team coach Jim Troughton challenged his young team to “learn very quickly” after they opened the Specsavers County Championship season with an eight-wicket defeat at home to Kent.
The Bears battled hard on the final day with Tim Ambrose and Henry Brookes adding 144 for the eighth wicket before Kent closed out victory in the final session.
We have got two days off now and then two days prep before the Yorkshire game. We welcome Woakesy back into the fold which is great.
Jim Troughton
The result left the Bears with just four points from their first four-day match of 2019 as they now turn their attention to white-ball cricket and their Royal London Cup campaign which begins at home to Yorkshire Vikings on Friday (11am).
“The odds were stacked against us on the last day,” said Troughton, “but what we wanted to see was some courage and some skill to give ourselves at least the opportunity to save the game. We did that through Amby and Brookesy to give ourselves a sniff of saving the game and it’s almost more painful to get that great partnership and get quite close to saving it but then lose the game anyway.
“It was a great cricket wicket to play on but, at the end of the day, we were outbatted, outbowled and outfielded and if that’s the case over four days of cricket you are not going to win.
“We prepped as well as we can, but we have just been outbasic-ed really and that is something we are going to have to instil in this group of young players. Now we switch to white-ball cricket so it’s a case of taking stock of this game, remembering it and revisiting it when we come back to red-ball cricket. The challenge at this level is that when you lose games of cricket you learn very quickly.
“The guys are very excited about the Royal London Cup. We have got two days off now and then two days prep before the Yorkshire game. We welcome Woakesy back into the fold which is great.
“We played some 50-over games pre-season and had a strong focus on it knowing that it comes early in the season and then games come thick and fast. We did some good things in the format last season and the guys are very keen to get out there and continue to improve in white-ball cricket.”
