Warwickshire must ‘stay strong’ after difficult season, says boss Mark Robinson

Robinson also made the decision to change his skipper, replacing Will Rhodes with Alex Davies.

Both have had good seasons, making more than 1,000 first-class runs apiece, Rhodes for the first time in his career as he prepares to depart for Durham – but each proved vastly more prolific in the four matches against the comparatively easier Kookaburra ball than in 10 matches against the tougher Duke ball.

“I’ve told Alex Davies, in his first year as captain, that it’s never going to be so difficult again,” said Robinson.

“It’s my job to keep the players calm after losing one or two big one-day games for which we got criticised. But I’ve been massively impressed with the resilience of the squad.

“We played on a lot of flat pitches like at Trent Bridge and there was a lot of rain when we were in reasonable positions. That’s why there were so many draws.

“On the red-ball front, these are difficult times for the county game. I was brought up in it and have a great affinity with it but you sometimes fear it’s getting a bit marginalised. And I’d like to thank those four-day supporters who’ve stuck with us through the Championship season, loving this type of cricket.

“But we all now need to draw breath and come back strong.”