Ashley Giles has praised young wicketkeeper Alex Davies, with the 20-year-old enjoying a breakthrough season at Lancashire.
The England under-19 star made his debut in 2012, but has emerged as a first team regular in 2015, with first-choice glovesman Jos Buttler now behind the stumps for the national side.
And the local lad, who turns 21 next week, has seized his opportunity, scoring a respectable 573 runs at 35.81 in the County Championship, including a 99 against Royal London One Day Cup Saturday opponents Kent in April – the closest he has come to a senior century.
He has backed this up with an impressive start to the one-day campaign, especially in his career best 73* against Warwickshire at the beginning of August that included some spectacular, innovative strokeplay.
And whilst Davies may not have scored as heavily in the Championship as his early-season promise indicated he might, Lancashire head coach Giles is backing him to build on his promise and establish himself as a top player.
“He’s probably scored less runs recently than he would have liked – he started the season brilliantly,” he said.
“All players seem to go through highs and lows, peaks and troughs in and he is a young player still.
“I think there’s a danger sometimes as a young player, you can overthink success sometimes as much as failure, and you look for things all the time.
“He’s got quite a simple but strong technique and he needs to stick to his basics.
“If he does that I think he’ll be a very successful cricketer.”
Image courtesy of Edgbaston Stadium via YouTube, with thanks.
