When Bathurst District Cricket Association skipper Jameel Qureshi makes his return to representative cricket this Sunday he sees it as a personal mission to ensure his side remains in Western Zone Premier League contention.

While Bathurst was crowned joint premiers last season after a remarkable tie with Dubbo in the decider, this summer has been tougher.

After two rounds Bathurst sits at the bottom of the premier league ladder, having suffered a four-wicket loss to Dubbo in its opener then having a rare tie with Parkes.

It means Bathurst must beat Cowra this Sunday then Orange next month, do so in impressive fashion to improve its net run rate, as well as hoping for favourable outcomes in other fixtures.

“The pressure is on and we’ll see what we’re made off, we’re in a bit of trouble on the bottom of the ladder,” Qureshi conceded.

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“But we can only look at our job this Sunday, get it done and go from there.

“It would be very disappointing if we missed out, especially with the young guys we’ve got. The young guys we’ve got now, talent-wise, there are a few special boys running around there.”

Bathurst’s chances will be boosted by the return of Qureshi, who missed the tie with Parkes. He has sat out most of the season thus far after breaking his hand while leading the Central West Wranglers.

Though he spent time with his family during his recovery and enjoyed seeing others step up for Bathurst, Qureshi is hungry to keep the side’s premier league hopes alive.

“I did it in a Regional Big Bash game trying to take a catch, it was an absolute sitter and I dropped it. You could have under-armed it to me harder,” he laughed.

“I knew after it happened something was wrong, I’d never felt anything like that before … but I didn’t pick it up until about two weeks later.

“It will be good to be back. I take it a bit personally as well, I’m the captain so the results reflect upon me. I want to see the boys do well and I want to see the team do well.”

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Qureshi does not underestimate the difficulty of beating Cowra and Orange given the talented players with those districts, yet he has faith in his squad.

He believes that if the men he leads can execute with bat and ball, they will earn the victories they require.

“We always say within our side that if we play our best cricket we will be pretty hard to beat, so we have to concentrate on what we are doing and do the small things right,” he said.

“At the end of the day we need to go out there and do a job, go out there and get it done.”