Leicestershire Foxes v Yorkshire Vikings: Matthew Revis determined to make most of chance

The then 17-year-old opened the batting in a County Championship match against Kent at Headingley which Yorkshire lost by 433 runs, the heaviest defeat by a runs margin in their history. Ironically, it was the oldest stager in town, Darren Stevens, a man more than 25 years Revis’s senior, who made his own first-class debut four years before Revis was born, who stole the show with a career-best 237 and seven wickets in the match, while Revis was left to reflect on scores of 9 and 0. “It feels like a long time ago now,” said Revis, who turns 20 in November. “Since then, I think I’ve matured quite a bit and I know my game a lot better. “I had quite a bit of time that winter with PG (Paul Grayson, the Yorkshire batting coach) and just ironed out some faults really. Wherever the bowler bowls to me now, I think I can really deal with it, whether that’s with the red ball or the white ball.” Revis showed his skills by top-scoring with 43 in Yorkshire’s Royal London Cup opener against Surrey at Scarborough on Thursday. With the club currently missing an entire team of players due to The Hundred, it means that spots are available in the 50-over Cup that runs concurrently. One of four Yorkshire players who made his List A debut in that five-wicket defeat, along with Harry Duke, George Hill and Jack Shutt, Revis clearly has plenty of ability. Tall and powerful, he played well on both sides of the wicket after coming in at No 6 with Yorkshire in trouble at 40-4, sharing an 81-run stand with Gary Ballance. “I don’t really mind where I bat,” said a man who is now targeting an extended run in the Yorkshire first XI. “I batted at No 3 on Tuesday against Northumberland (in a 50-over friendly) and felt just as good really, so I think I can bat anywhere in the top-six. “I’ve had a couple of 40s and 50s lately, and also in the second team, and I just need that big score now to really kickstart the season. “Obviously it’s great for the boys who are playing in The Hundred, but it’s also great for us young boys to get a taste of what first team cricket is actually like and what you need to be able to do to stay at this level.” Revis, who was born in Steeton and worked his way up through the Yorkshire ranks, is also a burgeoning bowler. “Rich (Pyrah, the Yorkshire bowling coach) has worked really hard with me this winter,” he said. “Before that, I was just seen as a kind of medium-pacer, keeper up, and if everything’s not going so well then bring me on kind of thing, but Rich has really turned me into an all-rounder and made me really think as a bowler and made me be really aggressive.” Yorkshire squad for tomorrow’s Royal London Cup match at Leicestershire: Ballance, Bess (captain), Coad, Duke, Fraine, Hill, Luxton, Olivier, Patterson, Pillans, Revis, Shutt, Sullivan, Tattersall, Waite.