The all-rounder has signed a two-year contract extension, taking his current deal, which expired in 2021, to the end of the 2023 season.
There are few players in the game who return 1420 runs in the summer, fewer still who add to that with 67 wickets, also across all formats. That Luis has done so while opening the batting and sometimes the bowling makes his efforts all the more laudable.
While a sizeable section of the club support feels those demands are putting unnecessary pressure on him, the bottom line is that the player must feel that he can handle it. It is most likely to be an issue if a long session in the field is followed by his needing to 'switch on' his batting head, but Luis will rightly point to his performance against Sussex at Derby, where five wickets were followed by one of the finest innings you could wish to see.
He is a one of a kind player. Jacques Kallis bowled first change and batted three, Eddie Barlow opened for South Africa and was often second or third change. Yet Barlow bowled only occasionally for his country, whose attack was strong enough without him, while Kallis bowled less as he got older.
Lancashire supporters have been proved correct on this one. When he moved to Derbyshire, I was told by a number of their fans at cricket talks that we had a fine player and they had made a mistake. He had looked a player of talent at Old Trafford, but in cameo bursts, without stringing performances together. Perhaps they weren't sure how best to use him, but Kim Barnett, to give him his due, spotted something and gave him an opportunity.
He has repaid that in style. There was a brief flirtation with slow left arm, but he has since gone back to left arm seam and swing bowling that always threatens and usually delivers wickets, late inswing and one that goes across the batsman being potent weapons. He bowled at a good pace in 2019, though reducing it to good effect in the one-day game.
A stress fracture of the foot in 2018 was followed by an ankle issue this year, but he played through it and gave extraordinary value to the club. He played with a smile on his face too and what I like about Luis is that he looks like he enjoys and appreciates every minute on the cricket field. He bristles with aggression, but it is channelled correctly and he is a very good man to have on your side.
He can get better still. He is still at the crease and correct in technique, a man capable of teeing off from the start in one-day games, while digging in to bat time in the longer format. I don't expect to see many better innings than the one he played at Derby in the season closer, when a century between lunch and tea could have been followed by another between tea and the close, had a mix up with his skipper not seen him run out. Such mix ups cost him runs early season, but we must hope they are more used to one another now.
Anuj Dal has signed for two more years, Leus du Plooy for three, Reece for four. That has been a fine few weeks work by the Head of Cricket. Derbyshire supporters can head into the winter in fine fettle, more confident in the club's future than for a number of years.
That jigsaw is coming together very nicely.
Brilliant. Assume the club will hope Critchley is next
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