As Melbourne and Sydney roll out the welcome mats for the AFL and NRL grand finals, there are a select few of us who are casting our minds forward a month to the start of the cricket season.
For the state season it’s a quiet start with the One-Day Cup in Sydney. This competition has an element of intrigue attached to it with Cricket Australia introducing a Cricket Australia XI to the competition consisting of young and upcoming players from around the country.
This XI will again compete against the state teams to be crowned the champion. As most of us will be aware it is a transition period and in my eyes a very exciting time.
This summer sees the resumption of the Sheffield Shield, One-Day Cup, and the Big Bash League (both men and women) and in the international summer the Australians play the West Indies, New Zealand and India.
Australia then travel across the Tasman to New Zealand for two Tests and three ODIs and they then travel to the World T20 in the big lights of India.
As stated above it is a very interesting season for both the Victorian and Australian teams. I see similarities as they are both going through times of transition.
In Victoria they are now being led by the former England bowling coach David Saker. The team to me is most interesting, there are a number of players such as Cameron White and David Hussey, as well as players such as Dan Christian and Clint McKay, who could very well find themselves on the outer if they have a lean start to the season.
There are a number of players looking to push up such as Jake Reed, Ian Holland and Eamon Vines. Reed has already played first-class cricket and Big Bash League for the Hobart Hurricanes. Holland, after winning the best player award last season in the district competition is surely pushing for state selection.
Vines is a bit of a smoky, he had a really good season last year making runs every week for Geelong and has this year been named club captain, so watch out for him to press his claims.
I feel that this season sees a number of changes in the Victorian side. My first team under David Saker I feel is as follows: White, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Holland, Hastings, Reed, McKay, Christian, Rob Quiney and Chris Tremain (Glenn Maxwell, Handscomb, Fawad Ahmed all in the Bangladesh Squad).
Australia I feel is in the same boat with a number of changes required in all formats after our shambolic tour of the UK and the road to redemption starts in Bangladesh.
This summer is really exciting for the sport in Australia and I feel that there are a number of players that need to be looked at, especially in the shorter forms.
Michael Klinger has to be given a chance in the shortest format. I have read that his goal is to be in India with the team at the World T20 and I feel that all the work he has done and his form have made him a lock for at least the squad for the first T20 of the summer.
Peter Handscomb also needs to be looked at as a potential Test and ODI player. He is young and is ready to make the jump to the international game. His first-class average is 35 but he has made huge strides in the last year and is one of the brightest stars Australia has to offer for the future.
An extremely exciting summer awaits us and it could be one of the more exciting summers in recent memory with the Kiwi team at the peak of its powers and the Indians always drawing massive crowds. I feel the Windies, if they bring their proper squad, should put up a fight.
Really looking forward to the one-day stuff starting.
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