BBL Player of the tournament Ben McDermott eyes IPL contract

Hobart Hurricanes’ Ben McDermott who was in form of his life during his stint at the Big bash League 2021-22, scoring 577 runs in 13 innings with two centuries to his name, is expecting to get picked in the IPL 2022 Mega Auctions scheduled to take place on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru. 

"If I don't get picked up this year not sure when I will," he said. "There's not too much I can do now, it's all up to those people in charge,” ESPNCricinfo quoted McDermott as saying. 

The 27-year-old who was picked in the Australian squad for the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka earlier on Tuesday, also said that he is more ready than ever before to represent the Aussies. 

"I feel like I'm on top of my game whereas in previous years I have sort of been in and out through player bans, Covid, all that sort of stuff, that's how I've got my opportunities,” he said. 

"I feel like I'm more ready than ever to play for Australia and I've developed a lot of learnings through those experiences. They haven't been good ones, I won't shy away from that, but definitely learnt and come back better,” added McDermott. 

The right-handed wicket-keeper batter who was striking at 136 in the recent BBL and has been in great form for Hurricanes overall in the past many seasons, said that though he was disappointed to miss out on the World Cup squad, but did not repent it much. 

"I was very disappointed when I heard I wasn't going to be part of that squad, that would have been awesome to experience, but in a way, I was glad I was left out. You saw with a player like Josh Inglis, who took my spot, he went over there and didn't play a game and missed a lot of the domestic cricket," McDermott said. 

The batter now hopes to utilise his form into the upcoming series as he is sure to get a go as an opener in place of injured David Warner.

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Twitter compares Kohli and Maharaj after latter’s Instagram post with Jai Shree Raam

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