By RICHARD WALSH
ALL-rounder Ben Green, who made his Nat West T20 debut for Somerset in 2016, is making a good recovery from the back injury he suffered late in the season.
The 19 year old, who played up through the Devon age groups, signed a three-year contract after graduating from the Academy. He has spent the winter working on his rehab to make sure that he is fit for the start of what will be his first season as a full-time professional cricketer.
“Things are going really well with my recovery and I am on schedule,” said Green.
“I had another scan recently and that showed that everything is now normal.
“This means that I can now start getting back into my batting and I can also start some bowling drills and doing all the gym and fitness work.
“I am nearly back to running full speed, probably about two weeks away, and then I will start to build up my running loads as well.”
Green will be joining the rest of the Somerset squad for their pre-season training camp at Desert Springs in Spain, but before that he has just found out that he will be travelling somewhere else in the sun.
“I have just found out from Matt Maynard that I will be going on the Somerset Academy trip to India, which is a batting camp so that suits me down to the ground.
“I think that Louie Shaw going with England Under 19s freed up a space so I am delighted to be invited and that is for 10 days starting on February 8.
“This will really help me and hopefully I can also help some of the others whilst I am out there as well.
“I am then back for about a week after that and then off to Desert Springs with the rest of the squad so it couldn’t have worked out better for me.”
Has the young all-rounder come to terms with the fact that his ‘day job’ is now playing cricket for a living?
“Yes it still feels a little bit strange to think of coming to Taunton to train is now my job,” said Green.
“The travelling from my home near Exeter is pretty straight forward and I have got used to that.”
Looking ahead to the new season Green said: “There is going to be a lot of competition for places once we start to get nearer to the start of the season, as there are a lot of similar players to me.
“Hopefully I can do as well as I can and take the opportunities when they come.
“I like to think of myself as a genuine all rounder and would like to be able to be picked as both a batter or as a bowler.
“Eventually I would like to think that I might get to bat between number four or seven, but its going to be about building blocks and taking things as they come, and bowl whenever, depending on the rest of the side.”
Green added: “All of my dreams are starting to come true and its all very exciting. It’s all happening quicker than I thought it would, but I’m really enjoying it and this is a great place to be as opposed to being stuck in an office or listening to lectures - so it’s a dream job for me.”
