Surrey sign Solanki from 2013

Surrey have signed former England batsman Vikram Solanki from Worcestershire from the start of the 2013 season.

Solanki, 36, has penned a two year contract, ending a 20 year association with Worcestershire. With over 16,000 First Class runs to his name, he will add vast experience to the Surrey dressing room, and will bolster a batting line up which has recently lost 3 key members.

Indian born Solanki played 51 One Day internationals for England, his last in 2006, averaging just over 26 with 2 hundreds and 5 fifties. Not a brilliant record I know, but anyone who knows anything about cricket knows what a fantastic player he has been over the last decade, and even at his age, I fully believe he can still succeed at this level.

In the Championship over the last couple of years, Solanki has batted at 3 for Worcestershire, but he is fully capable to the open the batting in 4 day cricket, and he could be the opener we have been waiting for (even if it’s just for two years!). Last year he had a good season in the LVCC, averaging over 40 and accumulating over 1100 runs, however, this season he hasn’t been at his best, averaging mid 20’s, claiming 1 century but no half centuries. However, that average is higher than what Ramps, Davies and de Bruyn have managed this year, which shows how poor our batsman have been.

One Day cricket has been a different story for Solanki though, opening the batting with Moeen Ali has been a big success. He is the 3^rd highest scorer in the CB40 this year with 350 runs, over 150 more than our top scorer Steve Davies, averaging 50 with 1 hundred and 1 fifty. In fact, the century was live on Sky, and he looked at his fluent best in a record partnership with Australian Phil Hughes. He didn’t have a very successful FLt20 campaign, with a top score of 33, but as everyone knows, T20 is a lottery and he could turn that around next season.

Some people may question why he has been signed on a two year contract, but I believe that Solanki would probably not signed if it was just a 1 year deal, so Adams just agreed to it as he was desperate to get an experienced, top order batsman in. It’s a shame that he cannot come to us now, as we need all the batting we can get at the moment, but he is still in Worcestershire’s plans at the moment and will respect the remaining months in his contract.

Overall, I feel that it is a very good signing from Chris Adams. When Steve Davies was at New Road, I used to make sure I watched Worcester when they were on TV as I enjoyed watching the pair at the top of the order. Now we have them both at the Kia Oval, and if they bat anywhere near the way they did 4 years ago, we will have a solid and exciting One Day top order.