Tom Kohler-Cadmore says he has loved his first taste of senior captaincy in Yorkshire’s recent Vitality Blast campaign, even if results weren’t to his liking.
The opening batsman scored 435 runs, a competition-high tally for the Vikings, and skippered the side in all but one game, with Steve Patterson rested and then leaving himself out.
Yorkshire won four of 14 games, added to a tie, four No Results and five defeats.
They finished fifth in the North Group table, winning three of their last four group games to hoist themselves off bottom spot to one place and two points outside the quarter-final finishers.
While happy that their late form has at least shown they are capable of impressive form in the Blast, Kohler-Cadmore also admitted to an element of frustration.
He said: “In a way, it would have been easier to take if we were terrible all the way through because you’d come off, accept it and say, ‘We’ve been honking’.
“But the cricket we’ve played in the last four games, including the Notts game, we’ve been on top and have played some really good stuff.
“Then we lost that Notts game because of a couple of overs.
“If we’d won that game, we might have sneaked into the quarter-finals.
“But, also, it’s not about sneaking in. It’s about making sure it’s in our hands.
“For the last three years, it’s been a case of, ‘If we win this, we might sneak in’. That’s just not good enough for Yorkshire Cricket.
“We have to address that and make sure next year we’re not hit and miss and we’re instead winning the big games to get us ahead in the group and hopefully getting us to silverware.”
He continued: “I’ve loved captaining the side – really enjoyed it.
“It’s hard when you lose because you go home and think, ‘Have I done everything right. Is it my fault?’ But I’ve learnt a lot from it.
“It’s something I want to continue doing.
“It’s just frustrating for me that I wasn’t able to lead the lads into the quarter-finals and Finals Day.
“Hopefully, next year, if I’m captain again in this format, I’ll be better for this experience and will be able to get us into a position where we are winning games.”
One of the highlights of Yorkshire’s campaign was the form of 25-year-old ‘TKC’ and opening partner Adam Lyth, who shared three century partnerships.
“We enjoy batting together, and I feel it works well. We complement each other. Left and right-hand works,” he said.
In the last eight days of the group stage, which finished last Friday, the Vikings won matches against Durham and Birmingham Bears away and Northamptonshire Steelbacks at home.
It showed to Kohler-Cadmore the squad are “not a million miles away” from success in the Blast, but he insisted: “There are things we need to be better at, and one thing these last few games won’t do is paper over the cracks.
“We’re going to have discussions about this competition and debrief it properly.
“We know it’s not good enough. Where we finished in the group is irrelevant because we were already out of the competition. Whether we finished last or fifth, it doesn’t matter because we weren’t ever getting fourth.
“It’s nice to finish with two wins, but we weren’t unlucky not qualifying.
“We do have the talent in our squad. We just need to find a method that works and back it. Then, in tight games, that’s what will get you over the line because everyone knows their roles and how to play it.
“We can hopefully build from these last three or four games.
“If you win three out of four games every time, you will fly through the group.”