Looking back at my thoughts on Joe Sayers from the end of last summer, the prognosis was pretty damming: “Next season is probably Joe’s last chance to patch up his technique, form and confidence, sufficiently to save his career with Yorkshire”. But then following a season and a half of abject failure – his previous 14 first class matches produced 138 runs @ 6.9 –  the pressure on him to regain form was immense.

It says much for Sayers’ ability, as well as his level headed temperament, that, with the help of the Yorkshire coaching staff, he was not only able to regain his starting place in the first team, but finish the season as its most consistent batsman in the championship. Others may have scored more runs, made more headlines, and taken more plaudits, but Joe generally got us off to a solid start, with no real dip in form throughout the summer – only three single figure dismissals opening the innings tells its own story.

Concern still exists over his scoring rate, and that certainly remains an aspect of his game that needs continual work. But the pigeon holing of him as a four-day specialist needs to stop. There was enough promise shown during innings in the pre-season tournament in the UAE, as well as the televised Pro40 game against Gloucestershire, to suggest that he is worth an extended run in the one-day set up, with the hope there will be a knock-on benefit to his batting in the longer form of the game. But if that’s to be achieved, it has to be with Sayers at the top of the order where he belongs rather than the ill fated experiment with playing him lower down we saw briefly in the Friends Provident and Twenty/20.

Championship – 16 matches, 1103 runs @ 42.42, 3 wickets @ 10.66

Friends Provident – 6 matches, 111 runs @ 18.50

Twenty/20 Cup – 2 matches, 6 runs @ 3.00

Pro40 – 1 matches, 55 runs @ 55.00

(Joe Sayers photo: By kind permission of Dave Morton)