Yorkshire are delighted to announce that Jonny Tattersall has been appointed as the club’s new captain until the end of the season.
The wicketkeeper batter replaces Steve Patterson for the remainder of the 2022 campaign after the popular seamer stepped down last week.
Tattersall, 27, will lead his home county in both the Royal London Cup, which starts this week, and the LV= Insurance County Championship.
He said: “Playing for Yorkshire in itself is a massive thing for me. So to be captaining them is an unbelievable privilege. I’m so proud to have been asked.
“It’s a little bit of a surprise, but Patto mentioned that he was stepping down after the last Championship game. He’s done a great job with it over the last three-and-a-half-years. He’s taken us forward and has been brilliant in helping everyone out.
“Captaincy is always something that’s interested me. I’ve done a lot before, at junior level, with the England Under 19s and at second-team level. I also did a warm-up game with the first team against Durham Uni last year.??“It’s going to be a good challenge. We need to rally the troops for the last four games in the Championship, and this one-day competition is going to be exciting.
“It’s been made clear to me that it is for the rest of the season, and we’ll have to see after that. It’s a good chance to get stuck in.
“We have a young squad out in this competition, and we’ll try and enjoy it.
“That’s why we play the game in the first place, for the enjoyment of it – that’s whether you’re playing professionally or in your back garden.
“The higher up the levels you go, the pressure increases and you can lose that enjoyment factor. But I want us to go out there, give 100 percent and embrace the challenges that face us.
“If we do that, I’m sure we’ll get some good results in this and in the Championship as well when that resumes in September.”
Harrogate-born Tattersall came through the Yorkshire age-groups and Academy and made his first-team debut in 2013.
He has been in excellent form during the last month, highlighted by a career best 180 in the Championship defeat against Surrey at Scarborough.
“Not playing for the first half of the year has given me that perspective, and coming back into the team and doing well has been brilliant for me. I’m going to try and keep going with that form,” he said.
Tattersall was speaking at South Northumberland CC, where Yorkshire are in friendly action against Northumberland ahead of the RL50, which starts on Tuesday.
“We have some great lads in the team who I’m sure will help me along the way. We’re all in it together, he continued. “We need 11 leaders out on the field, it’s not just one captain.”
This news caps a notable turnaround in a career which saw the former England Under 19 released from Headingley in 2015 before returning to the club in 2017.
“Cricket’s a strange game and professional sport’s a whirlwind,” he smiled.
?“I try and stay as level-headed as possible, and that can be difficult to do at times.
“I’ve always struggled to reflect on the journey I’ve been on and give myself the credit I probably deserve.
“But I’m obviously over the moon with how things have gone for me. I’ll just keep doing what I do, and hopefully that’s good enough to bring success.
“I’m feeling good with all parts of my game at the minute. I’m just trying to keep it really simple. I’ve felt in good nick all season.
“Sometimes it can naturally be up and down in T20 because you don’t always get a lot of balls. Having had some time to bat in the last three Championship games has done me a lot of good.”
Yorkshire start their RL50 campaign on Tattersall’s home ground at York on Tuesday, against Northamptonshire, before facing Roses rivals Lancashire there on Thursday.
He said: “It’s nice playing at outgrounds. It offers something different. With the Hundred going on, it may be looked at as a lesser competition. But when you’re at an outground, you tend to get crowds flocking in. Three or four thousand at York compared to Headingley, it feels a lot different.
“There will be some good support there, especially for the Lancashire game I’m sure. That will be a really good challenge for us.
“The lads are young, keen and energetic, and we want to win games of cricket.”
