Ben Coad was delighted to be handed the Yorkshire captaincy, describing it as “a great honour” after the opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
The new ball seamer was given the role at late notice when Gary Ballance reported an illness this morning.
“I got a call from Galey when I was at breakfast saying, ‘Be ready to skipper’,” explained Coad. “It’s just a great honour to be a captain of this club. I’m very happy.
“I’ve done it few times this season in the second team and had a full year of it before I came into the firsts. I’ve had a bit of experience, but never at this level.”
Coad, who won the toss and inserted, described a mixed bowling display as the White Rose allowed Notts to close on 292-9, including 3-71 himself.
“I’d say they’re a little bit over par at the minute,” he assessed.
“But we’ve got a great batting line-up, including Matty Revis as the extra batter. If we play like we can, there’s no reason why we can’t match them.
“We didn’t start the best. We’ve been better than this during this last little period in the Championship.
“But there were a lot of plays and misses. Had we taken a couple of catches, it could have been a different story.
“I think we were a little too inconsistent – not full enough – throughout. But we’ll come back tomorrow and get it right.”
On the pitch, Coad said: “When it does it, it does it a lot. When you get a ball to nip, they can miss it by about a foot. When the ball got older, it got harder as a bowling unit.
“But there is always something in it. I just don’t think we bowled as well as we can do.”
And on his captaincy debut, Coad added: “It was challenging having not been in this situation before. You feel like you want to impact the game all the time when that’s not really what you need to do.
“It’s just about relying on the lads that you’ve got. They’re good enough to do the job.
“Most of the lads know what they’re doing anyway, and it’s good to have Lythy, Tom and Bessy to chat to if you need to.
“So it’s just about pointing a few fielders in certain places!”
