THE Higher School Certificate will rob the Bathurst under 21s of several key players for their Mitchell Cricket Council season opener against Lithgow on Sunday, but coach Scott Inwood thinks they have the personnel to do the job regardless.
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Only five players who took to the field in the team’s unsuccessful grand final back on March 1 against Orange will return with the side ton Sunday after a host of players slipped out of the age bracket over the winter.
Gone are former captain Ben Orme, batsmen Stuart Hodges, Imran Qureshi and Ben Trevor-Jones plus bowlers Aaron Seymour and Trent Bright.
All six will not be returning to the side in any capacity this season.
Added to that headache for coach Scott Inwood is the enforced absence on Sunday of Brendan Inwood who was also in the grand final side, plus Nick Shurmer, Andrew Dean and Sam Hope.
Wicketkeeper Inwood and batsman Shurmer both have HSC exams on Monday and have opted out until after their exams have concluded.
In their place come a host of new faces, though a number have had a taste of under 21s in at least a training capacity in the past.
Sam MacPherson, Ben Curran, Jason Press, Jarrod Urza, Matt Pender and Blake Aubin all come into the side which will be captained by Josh Toole, while Jacob Bell and Cameron Hodges have also been added to an extended squad.
“I’ve coached a lot of these players in the younger grades but that probably finished in about the under 16s,” new mentor Scott Inwood said.
“There are a few particularly young guys in there, our batting is down a bit with the players we have unavailable so that’s why Blake Aubin has come into the side to strengthen that area, though our bowling is still fairly strong.
“This is a game that we really have to win, with some hard games later in the season it is very important that we win the games we should, and I think we really should beat Lithgow.”
The coach said that appointing Toole to the captain’s position was a ‘no-brainer’ given the amount of representative cricket he has played at both junior and senior levels, and the absence of Brendan Inwood for at least one match sealed the deal.
Scott Inwood said that despite the impending return of the missing stars from Sunday’s match, there is no threat to the positions of players who perform with bat or ball.
“Absolutely, it isn’t going to be a case of one of these guys coming in for this week, doing well and then having to make way for the players coming back,” he said.
“There are really four or five players vying for spots and if a young player like Blake [Aubin] comes into the line-up and does well then we aren’t going to drop him to fit other players in.”
BATHURST: Jacob Bell, Aaron Bell, Sam MacPherson, Josh Toole (c), Ben Curran, Joey Coughlan, Blake Aubin, Tom Gransden, Jason Press, Craig Hanrahan, Jarrod Urza, Matt Pender, Cameron Hodges.
