No! Not Thor, Iron man and co. This is about the young stars coming through the cricket ranks, on display from February 3 until March 30 in the final five rounds and final of this season’s Sheffield Shield. And they could be just as exciting to watch in a few years as the Marvel Comics lot.
We’ve got a serious bunch of outstanding young bowlers coming through, with Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins leading the pack.
But then there’s Joel Paris, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Behrendorf, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa, Cameron Boyce, Chadd Sayers, Sean Abbott, Sam Rainbird, Simon Mackin and Billy Stanlake just to name a few.
And wicketkeepers? We have at least four good ones.
But it’s the batting that has caused us angst the last few years. Where is the next Matt Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Steve Waugh or Alan Border?
Took some time but the rise of Steve Smith and David Warner – and more recently Usman Khawaja – suggests the basis of a fine team is in the making. But then too often we have to resort to the older, experienced lot. And while Glenn Maxwell and Chris Lynn have the talent, through injury or inconsistency we haven’t seen the best of them so far.
But wait! Almost from nowhere, a whole new generation of potential batting stars is emerging, almost without notice. Each Shield team has one or two of them, and several have exploded onto the scene with the kind of big scores expected from those who are years older and more experienced.
Nic Maddinson, Jordan Silk, Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Stoinis have shown talent, but struggled to achieve consistency.
Then along comes South Australia’s Travis Head (a potential Test captain?), Queensland’s Matt Renshaw and Sam Heazlett, NSW’s Kurtis Patterson, Tasmania’s Jake Doran, Victoria’s Travis Dean and Western Australia’s Will Bosisto – all could dominate the game in years to come.
The excitement is watching these kids in their developmental stage, before their names become prominent. The next few weeks are well worth watching, because I suspect some of these names are going to be spoken of as future Test players by the end of the season.
Are we about to see the emergence of some Australian batting diamonds, or just a collection of glistening rhinestones? These next five rounds of Sheffield Shield will be just as important as Australia’s international matches in the next few months.
I’m trying to contain my excitement. The future may well be here, under our very noses.
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