MATT Mason says Worcestershire will benefit from the extra competition for places in their pace bowling unit this summer after the switch in emphasis in terms of overseas players for the County Championship.
Charlie Morris, Joe Leach and Jack Shantry shared the majority of the bowling duties last summer and between them finished up with 160 Championship wickets.
But the signing of New Zealander Matt Henry until June and South African Kyle Abbott for the rest of the summer, as opposed to a spin bowler, will increase the options available.
With Ed Barnard, who made his senior breakthrough last summer, and Josh Tongue also striving to impress, it will add to the depth of the squad.
Assistant coach-bowling coach Mason said: “I’ve always liked the balance of four seamers. My view typically as a bowling coach is you’ve got to take 20 wickets to win games.
“With an overseas fast bowler coming into the side it means 1) we’ve got four seamers and 2) we can also rotate our bowlers a bit more because they had a heavy workload last season.
“We haven’t got huge amounts of depth in seam bowling at the club. We’ve got some youngsters that are a little bit away.
“But who’s to say a young Josh Tongue might not pop his head up this year – and it also creates competition whereas last year they knew they were going to play.”