Bears must draw breath and stay strong - Robinson

Mark Robinson took over as Warwickshire head coach in January 2021 - three months after predecessor Jim Troughton's departure at the end of the Covid-hit season

Warwickshire head coach Mark Robinson says his team need to "draw breath and come back strong" after a "difficult" season at Edgbaston.

The Bears finished seventh in Division One of the County Championship, winning just one of their 14 red-ball matches - and were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the T20 Blast for the fourth year running.

They rounded off their season with Sam Hain scoring 153 not out as the Bears batted through the final day to draw with fellow narrow survivors Nottinghamshire.

The Bears finished four points clear of Notts and 25 ahead of relegated Lancashire but below Midlands neighbours Worcestershire in the dual-tier structure for the first time in six years - and for only the second time overall since two divisions were created in 2000.

It was not quite as tight as 2022, when Liam Norwell's 9-62 remarkably kept the Bears up on the final day of the season, nor as bleak as 2017, the last season they got relegated, when they also managed only one win.

But Robinson told BBC CWR: "It's been a difficult year. There’s no argument with that. I’ve never known a season like it with personnel changes.

"There was a lack of penetration from our bowlers, I admit that, but I defy any team to get by without your best bowlers."

Robinson revealed that, as well as having Hasan Ali called up to a Pakistan training camp, Warwickshire had also missed out on an attempt to sign Western Australia left-arm paceman Joel Paris.

They then lost Chris Rushworth two games into the season after suffering a leg injury against his old club Durham in April, before finally calling time on the injury-plagued Norwell when he picked up a new pectoral muscle problem to add to the back issue that had kept him out since September 2022.

Olly Hannon-Dalby kept things going almost single-handedly from one end, taking 50 Championship wickets. He was one of only two English top-flight pacemen to do so along with Essex's Jamie Porter - and for the third season running too.

But Rushworth played in just six matches, Hasan Ali only three - and England's Chris Woakes just two.

"Joel Paris would have been terrific and Hasan Ali suddenly couldn't turn up," said Robinson. "And it went on a bit like that all year.

"To lose your best batter, Sam Hain, the day before the first match and then your two overseas fast bowling signings drop out in the fortnight before the start, it throws you a lot.

"Chris Rushworth was often missing. And we really need to address the depth in our bowling, either through recruitment, or bringing our own players through. If we’re honest we've had only Chris Woakes as our one locally produced pace bowler for years and that has to be rectified."

Chris Woakes' only two County Championship appearances for Warwickshire this season came back in June, against Hampshire and Somerset

Robinson also made the decision to change his skipper, replacing Will Rhodes with Alex Davies.

Both have had good seasons, making more than 1,000 first-class runs apiece, Rhodes for the first time in his career as he prepares to depart for Durham - but each proved vastly more prolific in the four matches against the comparatively easier Kookaburra ball than in 10 matches against the tougher Duke ball.

"I’ve told Alex Davies, in his first year as captain, that it's never going to be so difficult again," said Robinson.

"It's my job to keep the players calm after losing one or two big one-day games for which we got criticised. But I've been massively impressed with the resilience of the squad.

"We played on a lot of flat pitches like at Trent Bridge and there was a lot of rain when we were in reasonable positions. That's why there were so many draws.

"On the red-ball front, these are difficult times for the county game. I was brought up in it and have a great affinity with it but you sometimes fear it's getting a bit marginalised. And I'd like to thank those four-day supporters who've stuck with us through the Championship season, loving this type of cricket.

"But we all now need to draw breath and come back strong."