Latest news with #AlfonsoThomas
Times
12-08-2025
- Sport
- Times
England think Rehan Ahmed's batting is special — is he next Test all-rounder?
A lfonso Thomas, the Leicestershire head coach, was in no doubt. 'I am amazed they chose [Liam] Dawson ahead of Rehan [Ahmed] for the Old Trafford Test. I believe that if England had him bowling there they would have come out on top in that game.' Obviously, leeway must be granted for a coach promoting his own player, but the question of whether both England and India might have been better off playing a wrist spinner in that drawn fourth Test is an interesting one. Kuldeep Yadav's absence from the India side throughout the series was certainly a mystery, and could England have selected 20-year-old Ahmed or even Calvin Harrison, the Nottinghamshire leg spinner who has spent time on loan at Northamptonshire this season? The next game at Old Trafford after the Test match was a County Championship match that Glamorgan won, mainly thanks to the efforts of leg spinner, Mason Crane, who took six for 19 in Lancashire's first innings and a further three wickets in the second innings. That, though, was on a pitch where the ends had been left bare, so a very different surface from the one on which the left-arm spinner Dawson was unable to take a second-innings wicket in the Test. It was, however, a surprise to see Dawson bowling Oval Invincibles' Tawanda Muyeye on the first night of the Hundred with a lovely, slower 50mph turning ball when there had been no sign of such variation during the Test.
BBC News
07-08-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Foxes coach Thomas tips Green for England
Leicestershire coach Alfonso Thomas has tipped young teammate Alex Green to be picked for England in the future after his side comfortably saw off Surrey in the Metro Bank One Day 18, produced terrific figures of 5-25 in his first match for the club's first XI this season, bowling with express speed throughout to dismiss the entirety of Surrey's middle order, including England international Ben Foakes."That was exciting to watch, not just as a Leicester fan but as an England fan in years to come," Thomas told BBC Radio Leicester."If he bowls like that, the fast-bowling cartel is in a good place for England."Green has had to compete with a strong bowling attack which has marched to the top of Division Two in the County Championship this collective efforts of left-arm seamer Josh Hull, Logan van Beek, Tom Scriven and all-rounders Ian Holland, Rehan Ahmed and Somerset loanee Ben Green have seen the Foxes amass 181 red-ball wickets so far to help gather 30 bowling points - the highest in the Thomas is backing the tall seamer to make a big impact on the game sooner rather than later."Those that have seen him last year always knew that there was going to be a bowler there, but today he has exceeded my expectations," he added."He does look a lot leaner than at the start of the season but again that comes with playing cricket and bowling."There is no coincidence that he's bowled that way today, because he has been bowling a lot at a decent level. That's exciting for me today, definitely." Despite being given only a handful of first-team opportunities by Leicestershire, Green has been a mainstay of the England Lions side this summer and took 3-50 against India Under-19's at Northampton in teenager refused to take the limelight for Wednesday's six-wicket victory, however, instead focusing on his side's disciplined display."Of course I'm very happy, but I'm just glad we could get over the line as a team. I think nobody stood out, everyone played their part very, very well," Green said."I feel like my rhythm got better during the innings. It was a nice pitch to bowl on, so it felt good. Physically, bowling-wise, everything has come on quite nicely."Green joined Leicestershire at the age of 10 and said his love of cricket comes from his father and brother, who both played while he was growing up."They were both here today," he added."I haven't spoken to them yet, but hopefully they were impressed with it."Click here to listen to the full episode of Talking Foxes, which includes interviews with Alfonso Thomas, Alex Green and Leicestershire chief executive Sean Jarvis.
Times
01-08-2025
- Sport
- Times
Choosing Liam Dawson over Rehan Ahmed cost England against India, says coach
Alfonso Thomas, Leicestershire's head coach, has taken aim at England's selectors for picking Liam Dawson ahead of the leg-spinning all-rounder Rehan Ahmed in last week's fourth Test against India. Speaking after Leicestershire's rain-hit draw with Kent at Canterbury, in which they earned 14 points and moved closer to their goal of winning the Division Two title, Thomas said: 'I am amazed they chose Dawson ahead of Rehan for the Old Trafford Test. I believe that if England had him bowling [in the conditions] there they would have come out on top in that game.' Thomas watched five-times capped Ahmed, 20, England's youngest Test cricketer, hit 119 in Leicestershire's first-innings total of 471 on Tuesday — his fifth hundred of the summer and the fourth County Championship match in a row in which he has scored a century. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. 'I don't think we'll be seeing him a lot in the near future. I spoke to Marcus Trescothick [England batting coach] about Rehan earlier in the season because I wanted the England management to have a look at him as a top- order bat, and as a batter who can certainly offer them an option with his bowling,' Thomas added. 'I think they wanted to see how he went over the season, but now I don't think my No 3 batter could have done anything more so far this season than to perform as he has with both bat and ball.' Ahmed, given 42 overs on a docile surface as Kent replied with 445 for eight, finished with three for 134, but Leicestershire's attack was blunted chiefly by Ben Compton's 8½-hour 221, a career-best score for the 31-year-old opener. Leicestershire are now 52 points clear of third-placed Derbyshire, who were outplayed by Northamptonshire but held on for a draw thanks to an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 131 between Luis Reece and Brooke Guest after rain allowed only 38 final-day overs at Wantage Road. Second-placed Glamorgan, meanwhile, look heavy favourites to go up with Leicestershire, with three matches to go, after completing an impressive 154-run victory over Lancashire at Old Trafford that moved them to within 28 points of the second-tier leaders. Mason Crane took his wicket haul to nine in the match as Lancashire were bowled out for 318 in their second innings, while at Cheltenham there was a maiden hundred for 21-year-old Joe Phillips, who scored 136 in his eighth first-class match, as Gloucestershire played out a high-scoring draw with Middlesex in a rain-ravaged match. Trent Bridge (final day of four): Nottinghamshire (13pts) drew with Somerset (12) After three days devoid of tension, drama at last reached Nottingham 25 minutes post lunch when Calvin Harrison's leg-spin brought two wickets in ten balls and Somerset, batting again 106 behind, were suddenly four down with as many runs still needed to reclaim the lead (Neville Scott writes). Following eight games on loan with Northants in which his 30 wickets included a career-best seven for 119 back in April and a maiden hundred last match, it was Harrison's first Notts appearance for eleven months. At 6'4' he generated the bounce and turn out of the rough into the left-handers Tom Lammonby, bowled through the gate for 38 and James Rew, taken at short leg for 27. As a psychology graduate, here was the man to exploit pressure, maybe, but as the spinners whipped through 25 overs in 78 minutes, an unfazed Tom Abell bedded in. It was half an hour into the final session, with the lead now 84 and 22 overs at most remaining, before he edged Harrison behind and immediately walked for 51. His partner, Tom Banton, had by then survived extremely hard chances off the same bowler on 16 and 32 before reaching an unbeaten 43 when Nottinghamshire conceded the chance had gone and shook hands on the draw. Had this surface yielded any help even half a day earlier we might have had a classic. Nottinghamshire, six down overnight, added 33 in 50 balls first thing before finishing 544 all out and knocking over both Somerset's makeshift openers, effectively two No8s in search of surprise glory, in nine new-ball overs. Somerset departed knowing the side may yet face sanction for an altogether different pitch in their last game at Taunton, one which a spokesperson for the Cricket Regulator said 'was rated below average and remains referred for further investigation'. For their part, the wait for all Championship devotees is now of 37 days as white-ball cricket sweeps all aside until three final four-day rounds astride the autumn equinox. Both Surrey, the leaders, and Notts, nine points behind in second, still have Warwickshire to play at home, the former also meeting Hampshire away after the Notts have played in to the point, the middle of those September round pits these two top teams, champions and pretenders, against on another at the Oval. It is a contest that may well decide the title. September 15-18: put it in the diary.
BBC News
02-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
'Wheels not off' after first Leics loss
Leicestershire's first defeat of the season will not trigger panic, says Foxes all-rounder Logan van five-wicket T20 Blast loss to Northants Steelbacks came two days after the County Championship Division Two leaders opened their white-ball campaign with victory against East Midlands rivals wickets lost in the first over and an early batting collapse had Leicestershire at 39-7 and staring at the prospect of setting a club-record low total in the competition.A knock of 42 from Van Beek helped then to 122 all out, and while they had Northants 75-4 in the 14th over, Ravi Bopara's unbeaten 46 off 40 balls took them home with four balls to spare."We just had a terrible start, and that doesn't mean the wheels have fallen off or anything like that," Van Beek told BBC Radio Leicester."We just have to acknowledge it. We had a bad start, that was it. We now have another game in two days' time, so let's click into that." Van Beek says the early difficulties at Wantage Road did nothing to diminish the new levels of confidence the side has found in the opening months of the coach Alfonso Thomas has spoken in recent weeks about how it has taken "baby steps" to lift Leicestershire out of the County Championship doldrums to the top of the Division Two five victories in seven matches leading up to the start of the T20 campaign is as many wins as they managed in the second tier of the red-ball game between 2019 and 2024."Even in this situation, because we have been winning you kind of have a bit of an instinct that 'all right we can pull this out of the fire here'," Van Beek said."You have a good feeling going into games and a good feeling going into situations knowing you are winning and have the momentum."Leicestershire are next in action on Wednesday at Old Trafford where they face North Group leaders Lancashire Lightning, who have won all three of their T20 matches.
BBC News
28-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
'Baby steps' behind Leicestershire rise
Head coach Alfonso Thomas says it is "baby steps" that have taken Leicestershire from the County Championship doldrums to the top of the Division Two Foxes are yet to be beaten this term, having won five of their opening seven matches - as many wins as they managed in the second-tier of the red-ball game between 2019 and 2011 and 2022, the Foxes had finished bottom of the table seven times. In four of those seasons, they had failed to win a were so poor their very existence as a first-class county was called into question., externalAnd while they remain the only Championship team to have never been promoted, Thomas has been instrumental in transforming the Foxes' was interim head coach - a job he initially shared with former England batter James Taylor - when they ended a 12-year wait for silverware by winning the One-Day Cup in 2023."To change things around was never going to happen overnight," Thomas told BBC Radio Leicester."And I still think we are a season ahead of where I'd like us to be." At Leicestershire they have a "passion" for proving people won two County Championship titles in three years between 1996 and 1998 and are among the English game's most decorated T20 clubs, having won the competition three One-Day Cup success of two years ago, after a barren period of more than a decade, earned Thomas the role of head coach on a permanent basis, and while his first full season in charge did not bring the same success, the former Proteas seamer says the club made valuable they managed only one win, they played out 10 draws and were defeated just twice with the red ball."Last year it was more a case of us being tougher to beat," Thomas said. "Now, I'm not saying that we've gone out to play games that I didn't want to win, because that is not how I operate."I wanted us to be a bit more mentally tougher, to fight a bit more and that is why we did well in terms of the baby steps that we wanted to take."And it is baby steps at the moment, there is a method and it is working."What Thomas needed next to turn the Foxes from being a side consistently competitive over four days into a team of winners, was a merciless bowling attack."It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what it takes to win four-day games of cricket - you have to take 20 wickets," he said. In Ian Holland, the all-rounder who made his move from Hampshire permanent in the winter after a loan with Leicestershire last season, they have the division's leading wicket-taker with 28 scalps at an average of just over international Logan van Beek is second on the list with 26 wickets, while fellow seam bowler Ben Green, who is on loan from Somerset, has 22 to his name and Tom Scriven has claimed international Josh Hull has also picked up 13 wickets in four matches of an injury-hit campaign so far."With the make-up of our bowling attack, we have four seamers that are very stingy, very disciplined, and then I have got a bit of X-factor with a Josh Hull and a Ben Mike - that seemed to work and it is working at the moment," Thomas with a run of games with the Kookaburra ball - to replace the seamer-friendly Duke ball - coming up in June and July, Thomas anticipates England spin-bowling all-rounder Rehan Ahmed will be able to impose himself more in a bowling attack that will also feature fellow spinner Liam Trevaskis."The next couple of games will be really key for us with how we navigate ourselves," Thomas said."It's four Kookaburra games, which is a different challenge, but I'm sure it is a challenge the boys will be taking head on."
