WORCESTERSHIRE batsman Ollie Westbury has again been writing about one of his county teammates.

This time, county stalwart Daryl Mitchell is under the spotlight.

He said: "Daryl Mitchell made his debut for Worcestershire first XI in May 2005.

"By the end of the 2019 campaign, ‘Mitch’ had accomplished 18 years as a professional cricketer, after originally signing in 2003.

"It was therefore a pretty straightforward decision to discuss his long career in my next blog.

"As a character, Mitch is very level-headed which has certainly contributed to his 206 first-class appearances.

"Whether he scores two hundreds in a game or registers two low scores, his mentality does not seem to change.

"He appears to always have his house in order and does not allow the peaks and troughs of a county summer to get to him.

"I asked Joe Leach for a few pearls of wisdom to sum Daryl up and he described him as “one of the most dependable batters on the county circuit, and he is also incredibly well-respected as a bloke.”

"This is clearly demonstrated by his fellow professionals voting for him to be chairman of the PCA twice.

"He’s served three years in the role already and is about to embark on his fourth and final year.

"Leachy also added “it’s difficult for him at the moment having to use FaceTime regularly as he has to sit so far away from the screen because of his abnormally large nose.”

"Away from cricket, Daryl is a very steady footballer. A holding midfielder by trade who reads the game well and puts himself about. My landlord Ed Barnard compared him to Lee Cattermole.

"When I passed this message onto Mitch he seemed very disappointed with Barn’s under evaluation of his footballing endeavours.

"Daryl insisted that he is far too accomplished on the ball to be considered of that ilk, and so it will come of no great shock to you when I tell you that he himself thinks he is a combination of Roy Keane and Lionel Messi.

£I asked him for a few of his career highlights. Mitch replied with the Pro40 success in 2007, when Worcestershire won Division One after beating Gloucestershire by eight wickets.

"Having said that, Daryl admitted that he could not look past the T20 Finals Day win 2018.

"He explained the satisfaction and joy of winning the competition, one in which he has been participating for the last 14 years.

"Daryl also gave a brief mention to the six promotions he has achieved in Championship cricket - I had no idea it was that many!

"However, he did make me chuckle when five seconds later he said that the six relegations after the promotions somewhat took the gloss off.

"I’ll leave you with words from former teammate and now Worcestershire assistant coach Alan Richardson, who describes Daryl as “stubborn, opinionated, argumentative, smart-arse and wind-up merchant, which are all absolutely perfect attributes for a quality opening batsman and professional cricketer.”

To read the full blog entry, head to www.openingpear.com.