JOE Clarke's ability to step up to the plate when most needed was a particularly impressive trait during the 2016 campaign, says new Worcestershire captain Joe Leach.

Clarke ended the campaign with 1,200 runs in the Specsavers County Championship Division Two with five centuries - a performance that has earned him another England Lions call-up for their winter programme.

But it was achieving many of that tally in pressure situations which particularly caught the eye of Leach.

He said: "What Joe is so good at, or what he seems to be good at for someone so young, is adapting to different conditions and different styles of bowling on any given day.

"He ended up with five Championship hundreds in his first full year and what was most impressive from a team-mates point of view was when he got them.

"Joe got them when they were needed. In the home run chase of nearly 370 against Leicestershire, he got a very nice 100.

"Against Northants, when we were going for 400 on the last day, he got another very good century.

"Away to Gloucestershire in the first game of the year at Bristol , we were under a lot of pressure and Joe got a hundred.

"For someone so young, to almost carry this batting line-up was really impressive."