The squad returned to training this week, starting the long haul to full fitness ahead of a very important 2025 season. Several members of the squad were speaking to members regarding renewals, which was good to see, but the acid test will be on improved fortunes in 2025.
One of the players who will be key to that is Caleb Jewell. The Tasmanian has been struggling for form at the start of the Australian summer, with scores of 10, 32, 18, 5, 3, 61, 5 and 4 so far. Of course, form is a transient thing and those scores do not reflect his career averages, but we will need him firing far better if he is to make any difference to our prospects in 2025.
A player who I believe is likely to be back in our colours next year, Blair Tickner, is faring better, with seventeen wickets in six innings bowled, so far. He took six wickets in the opening first-class match of the New Zealand summer, the rest coming in fifty-over games. I suspect the genial Kiwi will return in 2025 if his wife's health allows it, but we must wait and see. I am not wholly convinced on the overall standard in New Zealand outside the elite squad, but you can only play what is in front of you.
I have watched a bit of international cricket but the surfeit of games renders a lot of it dull, as mismatched sides engage in what is little more than range-hitting on batter-friendly pitches. A lot of the big names are rested from lesser series to avoid burnout.
I watched what was effectively second teams from India and South Africa play yesterday and the Indians won with ease. Their strength in depth is far greater and this was reflected in an innings of 283-1 in which there were TWENTY-THREE sixes. I don't get an awful lot from matches where the bat dominates and you might as well just have a bowling machine and a guy with a tape measure to work out who hits the biggest six.
I'm sure I sat through seasons of Derbyshire cricket when there were probably fewer sixes (not maximums..) hit, but they were special events and worthy of note. When twenty per cent of deliveries in a game disappear into the distance, I find it oddly dull and repetitive. I switched off before the end of the first innings, somewhat in the manner of Groucho Marx when asked how he found television.
'Very educational,' he said. 'I went into another room and read a book...
I will be back tomorrow with a review of that book.
Meantime, have a great weekend!
It's rumoured that the 2025 fixtures will be released this Thursday. Hope so 👍
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your review of JS's book. Les Jackson once came to the indoor nets when a group of us young hopefuls were being coached by Denis Smith and he was very friendly.
ReplyDeleteCaleb Jewell's form is worrying; his latest failure came when his team was compiling a big score in Queensland. His Sheffield Shield average last season was only around 26 and that was bolstered by a double century. He must be in danger of being dropped by Tasmania.