Gareth Roderick pays tribute to his late teammate Josh Baker

Gareth Roderick opened the batting for Worcestershire against Kent at Canterbury. Roderick made 117 and when he got to 100 runs, he tapped the squad number of Josh Baker that has been embroidered on Worcestershire’s shirts for the rest of the season, and a glance to the sky where heaven is supposed to be and gave a salute to the gathered crowd at Canterbury.

Roderick said that he felt the spirit of his late teammate motivating him during his innings.

Josh Baker passed away at just the mere age of 20 last week.

Before the match began, the two teams had a moment of silence and mourning with the flags at half-mast, a gesture for Baker that has affected Roderick deeply.

Roderick said that it had been an emotional day for him and the team is devastated but they have pulled together. He quoted the ovation for Baker as lovely and that it affected the boys quite deeply.

He added that the round of applause deeply affected him too and he felt Baker’s presence with him on the match day. He thought about Josh Baker while batting and he is sure the team felt his presence with them too.

He said that he was extremely disappointed to get out at the end but it was a nice wicket to bat on, it didn’t have much pace and it was tough to score on it sometimes but once they got used to it the wicket did wonders for the batter.

He added that the squad talked about Baker in the morning and everyone grieves differently, someone likes to distract themselves with something else and someone likes to stay alone for a bit to come to terms with what’s happened.

Roderick said that the match day was just about pulling together as a team and remembering Josh and that’s what they did. They carried him with them that day and everything turned out well for the team.