Botha bids to get best out of Derbyshire’s spinners

Botha will be working with the club’s frontline spin bowlers throughout the off-season, as well as the batting all-rounders, in preparation for the new campaign.

Providing the crop of spinners with more tools in their armoury and improving technical aspects in their actions is what he will be focusing on over the next few weeks.

“Our spin group is young, but they are developing well,” Botha said. “Their development is about giving them the tools that they need to compete.

“We are giving them weapons such as spin, drift, bounce, which are what they need to take wickets.

“The reality is that spinners mature at about the age of 27. We have two frontline spinners at the moment in Tom Knight and Matt Critchley who are young guys. If we can get them ten to 15 more wickets, then we will be moving the process forward more quickly.

“Tom needs to be bowling regularly now. He has to start putting foundations into practice, and we’re confident he can do that. Matt has great attributes, but it is important that our expectations of him aren’t too high as he’s still only 19 years old.”