Fin Bean is targeting development in his white ball batting this winter as the young Yorkshire opener bids to build on his impressive early career progress.
Bean, 21, has made a fantastic start to life in the LV= Insurance County Championship.
He has posted 898 competition runs for the season and 1,036 overall in his career, which amounts to 15 matches to date.
Bean went beyond 1,000 during his 40 on day one of Yorkshire’s ongoing clash with Leicestershire at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road. He top-scored in 155-9 during yesterday’s opening day. Today’s second day was washed out without a ball bowled, play abandoned just before 2.30pm.
But that is just the start for an impressive Harrogate-born with grand designs on personal and, more importantly, team success.
After his remarkable quadruple century in Yorkshire’s second team against Nottinghamshire last June, Bean actually made his first-team debut in the One-Day Cup. But he has yet to have the kind of success in that format that he has had against the red ball.
He has one fifty in nine List A innings and is yet to make his debut in the Vitality Blast.
“Last winter was based solely around my red ball cricket because I wanted to solidify my place in the side as an opener,” said the York CC product.
“I prioritised that and left the white ball stuff behind a bit.
“This winter, I’ll put a lot more of a focus on white ball cricket and try to get that up to speed.
“Hopefully then I can put my name in the hat for the Blast and also try and do a bit better in the 50-over comp.”
A number of Bean’s team-mates are heading abroad to play franchise or grade cricket this winter. But he has opted to remain at Headingley.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Fin Bean is aiming for more success in coloured clothing.
“I do want to go away at some point, but this winter I want to stay here and get on top of a few things – fitness wise and work in the nets,” he continued.
“I’m going to move in with Cliffy in Headingley. I’ll have a break through October and then come back ready and raring to go.”
Bean’s form in the Championship has been fantastic this summer. He is the seventh leading run-scorer in Division Two with 898, one run better off than opening partner Adam Lyth.
Both men will hopefully top the 1,000 mark for 2023 during the next week-and-a-half.
They shared seven successive half-century partnerships, including three hundred stands – a run broken when their first-innings partnership here at Grace Road yesterday was limited to 45.
The duo have struck up an alliance which everyone hopes will be the bedrock of success for the county across the next few years.
Last week, at Glamorgan, captain Shan Masood hailed that partnership and spoke about the influence former England opener Lyth was having on his younger colleague.
“It’s great to see a person who is moulding a legacy at Yorkshire in Adam Lyth, and how he is transferring that onto someone who we all see as the future in Fin Bean,” said Masood.
“For his first full season, he’s been very impressive.
“He nearly had his fourth hundred against Glamorgan, and four hundreds in one season would be very good.
“The scores he’s put on and the mentorship he’s had from Lythy next to him, it’s been really good for the team. Going forwards, this is exactly the kind of thing we want for the club.”
And Bean has backed up those words.
“Lythy’s done everything that I aspire to do, score runs, win Championships and play for England,” he said.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Fin Bean and Adam Lyth.
“Ticking my first hundred off (against Leicestershire at Headingley in April) gave me a lot of confidence.
“The work I’ve done with Ali Maiden as batting coach and having Lythy at the other end have been big things for me. When you get out in certain ways, they talk to you about what you can do to get better. It seems to have worked.
“I didn’t really have much training time with Lyth before I was into the first team and opening with him this time last year.
“He was very good initially in getting me settled down into first-class cricket.
“Then, as you get to spend more time with him, you learn a lot more from him around the nets and how he plans to play against certain bowlers and stuff like that.
“As a left-hander, the ways bowlers look to get us out are quite similar.
“Out in the middle, if he picks up on certain things from the other end he will say so, whether it’s, ‘Stop doing this or keep doing that’. He certainly keeps me right out there.
“He’s been brilliant for me.”
Picture by John Heald. The scene at Grace Road on day two of Yorkshire’s ongoing clash with Leicestershire.
