AS Dom Sibley prepares for his first full season with Warwickshire he believes having a couple of months at the club under his belt from last year will benefit him this time round.
Sibley joined the Bears from Surrey at the start of August and went straight into the first team.
He hit the ground running in T20 with important runs at the top of the order to help the Bears to Finals Day.
In the championship, meanwhile, he scored 310 runs at an average of 28.18, scoring three half-centuries only for a big innings, and maiden ton for Warwickshire, to elude him.
High among his objectives for the 2018 season is to deliver some of those hefty, match-shaping innings in four-day cricket.
And the 22-year-old, who has been appointed vice-captain to Jeetan Patel in championship and 50-over cricket, believes that bedding in with the Bears last year has helped a lot.
“It was really good to make the switch immediately so that I could play for the last two months and spend some time with the guys,” said Sibley.
“That meant I settled at the club and got to know how things work so that, this time round, all that is done and I can just concentrate on my cricket.
“I am really looking forward to the season.
“I was quite pleased with the way I played in T20 last year but in the championship, although I got an 80 and a 90, I didn’t play the sort of big innings that a team wants from its opening batsmen. I want to deliver plenty of those this year.
“It’s been a really good pre-season. The players have worked very hard and we’re all raring to go.
“There is a lot of competition for places so that will stand us in good stead because it’s a long season and you are always going to need a lot of players challenging for places.”
Sibley spent much of the winter in Western Australia where he played for the Midland-Guildford club in Perth before returning to Edgbaston at the start of March.
Then it was back to the long hours in the Edgbaston nets, with a brief diversion down south for the Bears’ two-and-a-half day stay at Thorney Island Army Barracks in Hampshire.
“That was pretty tough going,” he said.
“It took us right out of our comfort zone and I think we all got something out of it in terms of learning about togetherness and working as a team.
“Now I’m just looking forward to the new season, 100 per cent, and hopefully being a big player for Warwickshire in all the formats.”
