While the big guns from Group ‘A' of the Champions League T20 continue to battle concerns regarding fitness and fatigue, one team that threatens to steal the march on the rest, with a young and fresh unit is the New South Wales Blues.
Shane Watson, at 30, is already an aging pro in a squad with an average age of around 26. The likes of Patt Cummins (18), Josh Hazlewood (20) and Mitchell Starc (21), who will man the fast bowling department, along with Phil Hughes (22) and Stephen Smith (22), Watson concedes, are comfortable in a format that took players like himself some getting used to.
“It is different to start with your career without T20. I first started playing (T20) when I was 24-25, the youngsters are brought up on it. It is a very different game, for the batsmen to be able to score, no matter what the situation is; as a bowler, you've got to execute your specific skills in certain situations The great thing is the guys who are starting younger do this a lot quicker than I did when I started playing,” said the all-rounder.
Advantages of age
At the other end of the age-spectrum, is the Cape Cobras, with one of the oldest squads (average age of more than 30) in the tournament, with such veterans as Herschelle Gibbs (37) and Charles Langeveldt (36). While the shortest format of the game might have necessitated a certain amount of course correction for senior cricketers, Langeveldt said it came with its advantages too.
“For the youngsters it is exciting, playing under pressure in front of a lot of people; playing in front of 60,000 spectators instead of 20,000 at home. For the older guys like me, it prolongs our careers,” said the South African.
Chennai for once has a full squad to choose from for the length of the tournament, but any cheer that can be derived from that would be off-set by issues of player fatigue — skipper M.S. Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin, and Michael Hussey (who admittedly had a cracking Test tour of Sri Lanka) all return from lengthy international engagements.
Coach Stephen Fleming said it was ‘largely a mental thing,' and that there was a ‘hell of a lot of cricket,' but with professional cricketers, the ‘transitions are a lot smoother.'
“Mike (Hussey) would just have some net-work to get him up to speed. Some of them need extra work, but as professional cricketers they are match fit,” said the coach.
Starker problems
With Mumbai, the problems are starker — that of putting together a serviceable eleven that can take the field come match day.
With six of his players out injured, skipper Harbhajan Singh would have to look to his five overseas players — one more than the other teams are allowed to field — to mount a challenge.
“I am happy with it (five international players), and anybody would be. I look forward to people like Andrew Symonds, Kieron Pollard and Lasith Malinga to contribute and come up with suggestions,” he said.
