Alan Richardson believes Adam Hose is not far away from playing “a truly match winning knock” for Worcestershire Rapids in the Vitality Blast.

Hose is the Rapids’ leading run scorer in the 2024 Blast and top-scored with 43 against visiting Notts Outlaws on Friday.

He also made significant contributions in the two wins to date against Lancashire Lightning and the away match with the Outlaws.

Richardson believes a major score is not far away for Hose who was the Rapids second highest scorer behind Mitchell Santner with 397 in 2023.

They are back in action on Sunday when they take on Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Visit Worcestershire New Road (2.30pm start).

He said: “I look at it as a 14 game tournament and if you have a really good tournament you have a major impact in three or four of those matches.

“Adam is on the verge of that. He played a really sensible knock alongside Nathan Smith at Trent Bridge and helped us get up to a score we did.

“You always feel someone of his class and ability is never that far away from playing a truly match winning knock.

“Even the little cameo in the win against Lancashire gave us the impetus we needed, 23 off nine balls, an amazing strike rate off your first nine balls.

“He might not have had that really big innings yet but he has certainly had true impacts on both of our winning games already.”

Worcestershire are dealing with fielding a virtual new look side compared to 2023 when they reached the quarter-finals of the Blast.

Richardson said: “I looked at the away Notts game and we had three guys who played regularly for us in 2023 in that side.

“There were eight new faces plus guys playing in different roles as well.

“The balance of the side has changed a little bit alongside those fresh faces, and people doing slightly different roles, so that will also take time as well.

“But credit to the group in how they look after each other and how they want to work as a team and we have been able to put in some good performances despite being almost a completely different team despite quite not getting the positive results in recent games.”

There is one change to Friday’s squad with Henry Cullen replacing Josh Cobb – who is unavailable in games against Northants this season.

Worcestershire Rapids
2 Jake Libby
6 Matthew Waite
7 Ed Pollock
9 Gareth Roderick (w)
12 Tom Taylor
13 Henry Cullen
15 Brett D’Oliveira (c)
20 Nathan Smith
31 Shoaib Bashir
43 Harry Darley
54 Adam Hose
61 Adam Finch
77 Ethan Brookes
86 Hayden Walsh
88 Rob Jones