BATTING coach Kevin Sharp believes a crop of Worcestershire players are better equipped to face spin after a nine-day trip to India.

Skipper Daryl Mitchell, Tom Fell, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Alexei Kervezee, Brett D’Oliveira and Shaaiq Choudhry, plus academy trio Nick Hammond, Josh Dell and Freddie Wynn, were put through their paces against the turning ball in Chennai.

Sharp saw the benefits of such a trip when in the Yorkshire coaching set-up and he looks forward to the County players showing what they have learnt in matches.

He said: “The trip was a great success. It surpassed all expectations. Only one of the lads, Alexei, had been to India before with Holland.

“Having been a few times myself with Yorkshire, I know what kind of an invaluable experience it can be from an all-round perspective, culturally and for cricket.

“I was quite keen for the lads to experience that. We are very grateful to the supporters’ association, the D’Oliveira Foundation and the various bodies who funded the trip and trusted us to make the right decisions.

“Not many English players have had this opportunity in India during the last couple of years.

“I think the Indian Board have not been overly keen to accept English players having lost the Test series a couple of years ago.

“We wanted primarily to get better against playing spin. It is not something in England we do as well as playing seam and swing. They are not brought up on it like in Asia.

“We had a five-star trip. The cricket facilities were first-class. There were three fantastic pitches to practice on that spun and bounced.

“We were provided with local lads to bowl seam and spin. All of our lads batted for two-and-a-half hours every day. We finished with a game on the last day.”

Sharp continued: “We had a local batting coach in Umesh Patwal from Mumbai, who I have worked with before.

“He gave the Indian philosophy, which is sometimes quite spiritual and put across in a different way.

“He would get our lads to work on things they wouldn’t have seen before.

“He challenged the lads enormously and at first that was a little uncomfortable for one or two. But he grew on them as the week developed.

“The whole thing couldn’t have been a better experience and the way the lads improved in terms of playing spin was incredible to see.

“They developed their game plans and hitting areas, learned to use their feet forward and back, were hitting over the top with confidence and to gaps in safe areas through the field and practised sweeping.

“To see lads beaming and thinking, ‘I’m getting better at this’ is what it is all about.

“I can’t wait now to see how they put it into practice in matches.”

Sharp feels the experience will prove invaluable to the academy batting trio of Dell, Wynn and Hammond.

He said: “To see the three academy lads’ development was fantastic.

“Having Daryl and Alexei with us to provide that senior player platform for the others to bounce off was phenomenal.

“For the three academy lads, to spend nine days with five or six professionals, living, eating and breathing cricket, was priceless.”