Dynamic quicks, gifted glovemen, blossoming all-rounders and old-school opening batsmen are among a raft of young cricketers to keep an eye on when the second half of the Sheffield Shield season begins on Friday.
Here are six players aged 25 or younger that I’m keen to follow in the Shield.
Bryce Street – 22, Queensland, opening batsman
Street is an old-fashioned, grafting batsman whose priority is to blunt the new ball, a task that is especially important for Queensland, who are based on the liveliest pitch in the country at the Gabba.
So far he has excelled in this role. While his record of 285 runs at 35 in his debut Shield season looks solid but unremarkable, what is more relevant is that he’s faced 116 balls per dismissal.
That means that, on average, it has taken the opposition about three hours to get rid of Street. Among the top 20 run-scorers this Shield season, only three batsmen have faced more balls per dismissal than Street – Shaun Marsh (141 balls), Matt Wade (132 balls) and Nic Maddinson (120 balls).
Wes Agar – 23, SA, fast bowler
Best known as being the little brother of Australian limited-overs spinner Ashton Agar, this attacking right-arm quick has had a breakout summer in all three formats.
Agar began this season with a terrific campaign in the domestic one-day cup, grabbing 11 wickets at 20 from just five matches, including two five-wicket hauls. This white-ball form flowed over into the BBL, in which he grabbed 17 wickets at 21.
Meanwhile, he is equal-second on the Shield wicket-takers’ table, with 23 wickets at 21 from five matches.
Agar is a natural strike bowler. He has good pace, having been clocked at up to 148kmh, earns steepling bounce thanks to his 192cm height, possesses a sharp bouncer and likes to pitch the red ball up in search of lateral movement.
Wes Agar is one to watch in the Shield. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
Tom Andrews – 25, SA, spin all-rounder
This left-arm finger spinner initially earned his place in the SA Shield side thanks to his bowling, which allowed the Redbacks to play up to four specialist quicks at times.
But it is his batting that has come to the fore, with Andrews scoring his debut first-class ton this season, and owning a solid record of 423 runs at 33 from his ten red-ball matches.
An aggressive middle-order batsman, Andrews scores at a swift rate and likes to take on both the quicks and the spinners. With the ball he favours accuracy over sharp turn, similar to the likes of fellow left-armers Steve O’Keefe and Ashton Agar.
Given his all-round responsibilities, he has done a serviceable job with the ball for SA in his Shield career, taking 24 wickets at 42.
Josh Inglis – 24, WA, wicketkeeper-batsman
Inglis has begun to attract some hype thanks to his audacious stroke play as an opener in the BBL. He is also a very promising long-form cricketer.
Inglis had his first poor Shield season last summer, averaging just 21 across ten matches. But he has otherwise been a consistent contributor with the bat for WA and is also an excellent gloveman.
His keeping is so impressive, in fact, that Test captain Tim Paine recently described him as the purest young gloveman in Australia. Inglis is clearly rated highly by the Australian hierarchy, having been picked in a stacked Australia A side to face the England Lions in a four-day match at the MCG this month.
Daniel Solway – 24, NSW, top-order batsman
Solway has been a consistently excellent batsman in Sydney first grade cricket for years now, yet had to watch as he was leapfrogged by batsmen like Jason Sangha and Jack Edwards picked for NSW on potential over performance.
This season he was finally handed a Shield cap and has proceeded to peel off 262 runs at 65. Solway made a remarkable debut, scoring 133* as the rest of the NSW top six collapsed, leaving the side 5-107 against a good SA attack featuring Chadd Sayers, Wes Agar and Nick Winter. That turned out to be a match-winning knock as the Blues triumphed in this low-scoring game.
Solway then displayed his versatility by moving from number three to opener in his next match, and scoring 65 against the new ball versus WA.
Riley Meredith – 23, Tasmania, fast bowler
Meredith has some very high-profile fans, with Australian legends Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne both vocal supporters of the express quick from Tasmania. Ponting recently listed Meredith alongside Will Pucovski, Cameron Green, and Jake Fraser-McGurk as the four most impressive young players in the Australian domestic scene.
The hyper-aggressive Meredith has had a very good summer so far, taking 11 wickets at 25 in the one-day cup, ten wickets at 13 in the BBL, and 20 wickets at 28 in the Shield. While he needs to improve his precision and economy, Meredith has a rare ability to produce wicket-taking deliveries, even on the flattest of pitches. Able to bowl at up to 152kmh, Meredith has the kind of pace that can worry even elite international batsmen.
RM
Guest
Tell you what, the call to keep an eye on Bryce Street sure seems like a good one. On an old-school Gabba greentop with branches growing out of it, he finishes day one 41* off 154 balls, after Tasmania were bowled out in only 37 overs. He's almost managed to face that many overs himself. He and Neser have put the Bulls in a great position.
AREH
Roar Guru
Worth noting that a piece like this is also very handy as a discussion board for this Shield round for the fans of it...superb! Wish there was more written about it in today’s papers, but just a sign of the times perhaps.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Agreed. Good call.
jameswm
Roar Guru
12 overs, 4 for 18. That's a fair bit of trouble.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Wow. 2nd highest score after extras was 11.
TheGeneral
Roar Rookie
My comment was meant to infer that he should have been selected for this game.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Agreed, I don't know that I'd be picking him for tests yet either. Certainly at the moment if he was picked it would have to be as a specialist batsman anyway as he's not back bowling yet by the looks of things (Stoinis has bowled 8 overs but Green hasn't bowled at all, so I think that's a good indication that he's not really ready to be bowling again yet). But as an allrounder, people often talk about the player good enough to be selected on either skill. And so far in his first class career he's played basically selected as one of the specialist bowlers, and then done so well with the bat that when he can't bowl he's now playing as a specialist batsman at #5. I actually think that having a period of time when he can't bowl and just has to concentrate on his batting could be the best thing ever for him. If he can take this opportunity to really work on his batting and establish himself in the WA top-5, then when he gets back to bowling that's just an awesome bonus. He was one of the in form batsmen in the first half of the Shield though, so, if he's able to continue that in the second half of the shield season, I'd almost be tempted to take him to Bangladesh as a back up batsman, more to get him around the squad and learning from the best, not expecting him to actually play, really only would play in case of injury. But only if he really was showing great form. Hopefully they can have some Australia A matches between the end of the Shield season and that tour where these guys can keep playing cricket.
JamesH
Roar Guru
...and maybe they should have played him. All out for 78 with 31 extras!
JamesH
Roar Guru
Squad, not team. The squad announced a couple of days ago had him in it so he is obviously close to selection, even if he didn't make the final XI.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Hi Chris. Cam Green really is looking like one of the most exciting prospects to emerge in recent years. Personally I think he could do with this and one more full season of Shield before national selection as we (he) need to see how his body holds up and/or if he needs to adjust his workload balance of batting v bowling, but certainly is one that provides some real interest in following.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Michael Nesser with a Gabba green top and Duke balls means trouble for Tassie
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Hi General, no I was referring to next season's Test tour of S Africa, prior to the WTC final, rather than this season's short-form tour.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I wouldn't read much into that. I'm sure it's all taken out of context to sensationalise the whole thing. You could see from Maxwell's own comments after being ruled out of the tour that he was gutted to miss out on it. He had been managing this issue through the BBL, likely with pain killing injections and things, but the suggestion is that following the BBL the pain seem to get a bit worse. So they likely had discussions about whether he could try and just manage the injury through that tour like he had been through the BBL or not, and likely then took into account likely rehab times after surgery and all that and decided that while he could probably have done that, it was in the end the better decision to pull him out and have the surgery now. Probably someone said as much, and then the paper grabbed that and made it sound like they were annoyed that Maxwell didn't just do that. It's like all those headlines suggesting Allan Border looked at Warner winning the AB medal and said "that's wrong, they need to change how the voting system works so that doesn't happen again", when in fact someone just asked him about the voting system, and he said that, since it's unchanged since the AB medal started 21 years ago it's probably not unreasonable to review such things, but then went on to say Warner was a worthy winner. While the headlines just said "Border says AB voting system should change after Warner win" or things like that. Modern media will try to skew anything to get more clicks!
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I am keen to see if Cameron Green can continue his form from the first half of the Shield season. He's definitely looking like a really good prospect. Solway is another one. As you say, he's had others pushed in ahead of him more on results from under-age competitions. Maybe having to just keep piling on the runs in grade cricket waiting for his chance will set him up well to succeed. Riley Meredith is still injured though I believe. He's certainly not in the current Tassie lineup. When he picked up the injury in early January they said 4-6 weeks, and that's about 5 weeks ago now, so he hasn't returned on the early side of that timeline, but if it's 6 weeks he could be back for the next match. But sometimes those sorts of strains can just drag on a bit and you don't want to come back too early or you just re-injure it.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Article in Herald Sun today says there are "elements of the CA hierarchy" who "felt Maxwell could have delayed his elbow surgery and tried to soldier through the tour of South Africa using injections". That is mind-numbingly dumb view - surely the priority should be to get his elbow healed for the T20 World Cup. It just goes to show you what Maxi is up against internally. He's continually badly treated. No wonder the bloke battled mental health issues - he's not only lacking support from CA but they're actively undermining him. CA should find out who made those comments to the media and sack them. And if anyone else is questioning his commitment and professionalism they should have their position reviewed. This childish, bullying, intolerant-of-different-characters leadership culture in CA needs to be overhauled!
Rellum
Roar Guru
I has been raining solid for 10 days. There would have been no chance to do any pitch prep for the groundsman. The ball is swinging a mile too which is great in the humidity.
TheGeneral
Roar Rookie
Did you Queenslander's set us Tassie boys up ? Commentators now saying it is an 80's greentop.
Rellum
Roar Guru
That can barely get bat on ball. But it is very sunny today, so we need to knock them over before it dries out. If we can get in after tea and Marnus keeps his form up we are a real chance
TheGeneral
Roar Rookie
Duke ball doing a lot. As the commentators said the ball that got Doolan would have got most batsmen in the world (one even said Tendulker). Watching the live stream, as I said the ball is moving everywhere. Seems an appeal every 2nd ball.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Bryce Street also scored 345 in 2ndXI cricket this season. QLD already on top after electing to bowl, Tassie are 2-17