Your Bears: Will Rhodes Greatest Performance Poll

There have been plenty of memorable performances from the skipper Will Rhodes since he joined the Bears ahead of the 2018 season.

Which one stands out to you? Cast your vote on the Edgbaston app, available on iOS and Android.

100* v Northamptonshire at Edgbaston, May 2018

Bowlers bossed a match in which neither side posted 300 in an innings.  In helpful bowling conditions, a fourth-innings target of 179 looked distinctly tricky against a strong seam attack led by Ben Sanderson and Doug Bracewell.

Even more tricky when Sanderson dismissed Dom Sibley, Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell to leave the Bears 44 for three. But opener Rhodes, playing only his fourth championship match for Warwickshire, was going nowhere. He batted with immense skill and excellent judgment against the moving ball to see his side out of danger and to an ultimately comfortable six-wicket victory.

Rhodes added 50 with Sam Hain and an unbroken 86 with Matt Lamb, before posting a match-winning maiden first-class century – 100 not out from 165 balls with 13 fours and a six – with his side on the verge of victory.

109 v Kent at Canterbury, July 2019

The Bears arrived at Canterbury with their bowling injury crisis at its height. Every contracted seamer was crocked, so the attack was led by three loanees and unsurprisingly they found the going tough. Kent chose to bat and piled up 585 for seven.

With an injury-ravaged side, and under serious scoreboard pressure, the Bears needed leaders. Opening pair Will Rhodes and Dom Sibley responded magnificently.

In 47 overs on the second day, Kent hoped to make serious inroads and pretty much seal victory. Instead, the Bears closed on 142 without loss, with Rhodes on 70 and Sibley 60.

On the third day, they extended their opening stand to 221, an emphatic statement of skill and fighting spirit. Rhodes batted four and a half hours for 109 from 230 blals with 14 fours and two sixes.

Sibley went on to finish with 244 in over ten hours. The match was drawn, the foundation for the fightback well and truly laid by a young opening pair clearly of the highest class.

9-55 v Essex at Chelmsford, July 2019

Batting first, champions Essex were making strong progress at 157 for two with Sir Alastair Cook looking typically immoveable. Then captain Jeetan Patel threw the ball to Will Rhodes. Cook, Dan Lawrence and Rishi Patel were soon back in the hutch, unpicked by Rhodes’ skilful medium-pacers.

The all-rounder went on to add the scalps of Adam Wheater and Aaron Bears in remarkable figures of 14.3-6-17-5 in an innings in which Patel, Olly Hannon-Dalby, Olly Stone and Henry Brookes between them took five for 225.

Rhodes then proved it was no fluke, adding a second innings 18.1-6-38-4 (again dismissing Cook) for a match analysis of 32.4-12-55-9 which had the travelling Bears fans drawing comparisons with the great Sydney Santall.

207 v Worcestershire at Worcester, August 2020

If there is one fixture in which a Warwickshire player wants to shine, then it is the derby with old rivals Worcestershire. When the Bears chose to bat in their Bob Willis Trophy match at New Road, Rhodes shone to spectacular effect.

In an archetypal captain’s innings, he scored 207 out of his team’s total of 355. Only two other players reached 20. This was truly leading from the front. Rhodes combined exemplary judgment in defence with a positive approach, playing many attractive strokes on his way to 207 from 328 balls with 22 fours.

How would the young captain’s own performances stand up to the pressures of leadership in his first season as skipper? Here was the answer!

He added a fluent unbeaten 42 in the second innings to finish with 249 for once out in the match.

Vote for your favourite performance from Will in the Edgbaston app