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An outstanding record in Tasmania suggests the South Australian paceman Peter George can be a grey day specialist should he be picked to contest the Trans-Tasman Trophy in New Zealand.
Still growing into his 202cm frame at 23, George’s overall first-class record of 56 wickets at 31.05 pales next to the 17 at 13.76 he has harvested from two Sheffield Shield visits to Bellerive Oval.
George also returned figures of 3-32 and 2-38 on his most recent visit to the green-tinged Gabba, and it is these performances the selectors will have had in mind when choosing him as cover for Ryan Harris.
“(Selection) just shows I’m next in line at this stage or thereabouts, so that’s obviously fairly exciting for me,” George said on Wednesday.
“I’m not expecting really to be playing but to be around the guys and to be there ready if I do happen to get the call-up would be awesome.
“Just to be heading over there as a back-up is unbelievable for me and to say I expected it or even dreamed of it would be an exaggeration I think.”
Having never previously visited New Zealand, George said he would be hopeful to see a pitch at the Basin Reserve in Wellington that bore some resemblance to that in Hobart.
“That’d be awesome wouldn’t it, I’ve done reasonably well in the two Shield games I’ve played at Bellerive, so if I manage to get a game and perform something like I’ll be stoked,” he said.
“I’ve just been trying to do what I do, bowl my consistent line and length, and there’s some pitches and tracks that are better for that, and you get the rewards in some places that you wouldn’t get in others.”
Unsurprisingly for a bowler of George’s height and thrift, the comparisons with Glenn McGrath have never been far away.
One of his bowling coaches was once moved to describe George, then a new addition to the South Australian squad, as “like a young McGrath but with an outswinger”.
A question about whether he could be the next McGrath duly arrived on his departure for New Zealand, and George was ready to respond.
“I don’t know about that, maybe (I’m) the new Peter George,” he said.
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