It marks the signing of a quality, senior professional, a man with captaincy experience if required and able to bat at the top of the order, which I think will be his niche, or in the middle order if needed.
What it particularly offers is balance to whoever the captain is next season. The thinking money still appears to be on Leus du Plooy leaving, so Lloyd would appear the most likely successor, unless we are bringing in an overseas player or another English player with that enticement.
An experienced opening bat will be a great help to Harry Came, as he looks to build further on some good innings at the end of last year, as well as some positive displays this year.
Assuming that both are still on the staff, Anuj Dal and Luis Reece could bat six and seven, meaning there are three genuine bowlers in the top seven, Lloyd’s medium pace more than useful.
That allows for plenty of flexibility in the bottom four in the order. We could opt for an extra batsman, or we could play two spinners and two seamers, or one and three.
I would certainly love to see an overseas player who can handle a bat and bowl some quality spin, or bring in a spinner of quality to inject mystery to the attack. It may be that the overseas roles are split between four day and T20 players, but my ideal would be the return of Khan for T20, plus a hard hitting spinning all rounder and a good seamer for four day cricket.
Those key roles will depend on who else Mickey Arthur can attract from this country, but this could be a notional ‘nucleus’ side to start 2024:
Lloyd
Came
Guest
Madsen
Lamb
Dal
Reece
X
Chappell
X
Conners
I haven’t included Pat Brown, as we don’t know the story there, nor Ben Aitchison, who I understand is likely to miss the rest of the summer with a back injury. It is a major blow for club and player, especially as we are running low on seam bowlers. Nor does it include overseas players.
The weeks ahead will be fascinating and it will be interesting to watch players who might become available in the Royal London Cup.
I expect changes and surprises at Derbyshire, some bigger than others. But 2024 is a big season for Derbyshire, for Mickey Arthur and for his reputation.
