• Home
  • Cricket News
  • With Youth And Ample Experience Western Australia Look Determined To End Sheffield Shield Drought

With youth and ample experience, Western Australia look determined to end Sheffield Shield drought

Western Australia are giving themselves a great chance to win their first Sheffield Shield title in more than two decades and Marsh Cup after finishing as runners up in the last season with the availability of their superstar players at the start of the Sheffield Shield and the Marsh ODI cup. 

While Marsh and Agar will play only the Marsh Cup opener, Inglis is all set to play the first game of the Shield against South Australia. After his departure to UAE for the T20 World Cup, Josh Phillipe will take over the wicketkeeping duty for the first time after 18 months.

However, they will miss the firepower of Marcus Stoinis, who is there in the UAE to play in the Indian Premier League. 

They will also be blessed with the all-around ability of Cameron Green, who rose to prominence with a fairly good performance against India the last summer. 

"Cameron Green has had a bit of a stop-start pre-season, he copped two weeks home quarantine post the CA camp in Brisbane, he also got sick and spent a week and a half at home. But around those things, he's trained really strongly, scored a hundred in a practice game and has done some really good work with his bowling. I imagine that we'll still have some guidelines around what he does with the ball,” Western Australia coach Adam Voges said of the all-rounder.

“As an allrounder, you don't expect them to have the same workload as your out-and-out bowlers anyway. But I think what we'll see is some more flexibility and potentially higher numbers in what Cam can do in-game.”

Western Australia will stack their batting lineup with Cameron Bancroft and Sam Whiteman as openers with an experienced Shaun Marsh to follow at the number three slot. The trio of Hilton Cartwright, Ashton Turner, D'Arcy Short will compete for slots in the middle order and give Western Australia a great chance with the bat.

Jhye Richardson, who pulled out of the IPL will be available to play his first Shield game since November 2019 and he will spearhead the bowling attack that may comprise Joel Paris, Cameron Gannon, Matt Kelly, Liam Guthrie and Lance Morris.

Western Australia Squad

Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Hilton Cartwright, Cooper Connolly, Sam Fanning, Cameron Gannon, Jayden Goodwin, Cameron Green, Liam Guthrie, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Bryce Jackson, Matthew Kelly, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, David Moody, Lance Morris, Joel Paris, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Corey Rocchiccioli, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Sam Whiteman.

Discover more
Top Stories
news

Wasim Jaffer, Michael Vaughan call out ECB hypocrisy after England calls off Pakistan tour

Former cricketers players have criticized the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and called the decision of calling off the scheduled tour of Pakistan an act of double standards and hypocrisy. The ECB called off the tour citing anxiousness of the players who were to travel and live in a “controlled environment” before the big tournament such as the ICC World T20 and the observers of the game pointed out that they could have sent players who would have shown willingness to play in Pakistan in place of outright cancellation. As per an ESPNcricinfo report, the ECB did not cancel the tour based on the “security threat” that had led to New Zealand’s departure from Pakistan last week, but the decision was taken considering the anxiousness related to the tour. Former cricketers such as Michael Vaughan and Wasim Jaffer supported the statement of the newly-elected chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, who did not hide the “disappointment” on England’s refusal to travel. They pointed out the tour of England Pakistan had embarked upon to help the ECB’s trim the financial implications of the pandemic while the UK was reeling under a severe wave of Covid-19 last year and criticised the ECB for not being grateful and not offering reciprocal support. Also, the ECB and NZC’s decision to carry on with the ongoing series between England Women and New Zealand Women even after a reported “bomb threat” also highlighted the double standards of the ECB. Opinions are divided among the fans and experts of the game on the issue of whether the ECB took the right decision to call off the tour, but it was widely accepted that the PCB deserved better treatment from the ECB. Some of the experts also argue that the relationship between the ECB and the PCB can hit a new low in the near future and the PCB can also go as far as cancelling the next tour by England scheduled for next year and call on a “reliable” partner to make up for the losses.