| BULLS EYE BOXING DAY BIG BASH |
|
Crafty XXXX GOLD Queensland Bulls pace bowler Ben Laughlin is counting on adapting quickly when he makes his Twenty20 debut in Friday night’s KFC Twenty20 “Big Bash” game against NSW at the Gabba. Laughlin, one of Queensland’s leading lights with the ball in the Ford Ranger Cup one-day competition so far this season, is one of five first time T20 selections for the Bulls in their 13-man squad for the Boxing Day clash with the Blues. Laughlin has taken 12 wickets at 16.25 in the one-day competition but knows that will count for little when the opening match of the “Big Bash” tournament gets underway. The right-arm paceman admits he will need to spend some time during the festive season planning his tactics for the evening game. “I’m going to enjoy Christmas Day with my family but I will definitely be having a good think about the things I need to do when I wake up on Boxing Day,’’ he said. “I’m looking forward to getting out there – I’ve enjoyed playing Twenty20 at club level and in some of Queensland’s practice games in the pre-season but this should be a lot of fun, even though as a bowler you know that people are coming along to see sixes hit and that puts you in the spotlight for reasons other than taking wickets!” Bulls captain Chris Simpson said an off-season focus on Queensland’s approach to playing Twenty20 had the team well placed for the series after solid performances to date have the team in second place in the Weet-Bix Sheffield Shield and Ford Ranger Cup competitions. “If you look at how Queensland has gone in the past, it’s fair to say that teams like Victoria, which have won it three times, have worked it out while we are probably yet to strike the right balance, despite putting some strong teams on the field,” he said. “We’ve done a fair bit of work talking about our approaches as individuals and as a team during the off-season and we had a chance to try a few things in the matches against the Kolkata Knight Riders and New Zealand ‘A’ so we are coming into the Big Bash games with some clear plans and options.” “Hopefully we can use these games to kick-start us into the second half of the season,’’ he said. The Bulls players have had optional individual training sessions since returning from Tasmania last weekend, with Simpson planning a hit later today. “The players were given the option to have some quiet days to recharge the batteries but there’s been a number of them keeping up their gym sessions or having a net so we’ll come together on Boxing Day in the afternoon to do our team preparation,” he said. NSW will travel to Brisbane on Boxing Day and have announced a 15-man squad for their T20 campaign, including Australian Test squad selection Nathan Hauritz. XXXX GOLD Queensland Bulls: Chris Simpson (c), Glen Batticciotto, Lee Carseldine, Ben Cutting, Ryan Harris, Chris Hartley, James Hopes, Ben Laughlin, Alister McDermott, Craig Philipson, Nathan Reardon, Nathan Rimmington, Wade Townsend (one to be omitted, 12th man to be named). NSW Blues: Dominic Thornely (c), Phillip Hughes, David Warner, Moises Henriques, Ben Rohrer, Steve Smith, Peter Forrest, Daniel Smith, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Bracken, Aaron Bird, Mark Cameron, Beau Casson, Nathan Hauritz, Stephen O'Keefe. |
Hot Forum Topics
