Adcock to captain South Australia

South Australia have turned to Nathan Adcock, the middle-order batsman, to lead them out of the slump that left them on the bottom of the Pura Cup table with only one win last summer. Adcock will put his job as a lawyer on hold to replace Darren Lehmann, who quit as the captain in March after nine years in charge.

The Redbacks have decided against appointing a vice-captain but with Lehmann, Jason Gillespie and Matthew Elliott all playing on Adcock will have plenty of veterans to call on for advice. Although leading Lehmann could be daunting, Adcock is confident there will be no problems.

"[He is] a wealth of knowledge that is a great privilege for me to have in the side," Adcock told AAP. "To be able to draw on somebody like him, I'm a very lucky person to be taking on the role with a resource of that quality."

Adcock, 29, has captained the state's second XI and his club side, University, but has struggled to hold down a place in the first team. In the ten seasons since his debut he has managed 22 first-class matches and 36 one-day outings, averaging 26 in both forms of the game. He grabbed his few chances last summer, topping the state's Pura Cup batting averages despite playing only four times.

He scored a half-century in each of the last three matches - including a season-best 95 in the Redbacks' only Pura Cup win - and finished with 324 runs at 46.28. His five limited-overs appearances brought 163 runs at 54.33 and by the end of both campaigns he was offering much-needed stability to a middle-order that had struggled all year.

Mark Sorell, the state's new coach, said Adcock was guaranteed to play every game next summer. "We want to back Nathan all the way through because he is the man for the job," Sorell said. "Many of the things Nathan has done professionally I think will value add to him as a cricket captain. He's a high achiever and they can be very good leaders."