A useful all-rounder at First-class level, Stanley Worthington was an aggressive middle order batsman who could also bowl accurate medium pace. A champion performer for Derbyshire with close to 20000 runs and nearly 700 wickets, Worthington had a reasonable time playing for England too, albeit in a brief career. Having started out in the middle order, he soon became a makeshift opener without any degree of success. It was in the middle order that his best two Test knocks came and that was the role Worthington was most familiar with. His batting was mostly about robust strokeplay, forcing the ball into the gaps rather than timing them and he could strike them cleanly at will. With the ball, he wasn’t a flashy performer but did the basics right and was extremely difficult to score off due to his ability to hit a consistent length over an extended period of time. After retirement, Worthington got into a full-fledged coaching role with a great deal of success.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan