Will BPL Get Aussie Injection?

Will there be an Australian boost in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League, country’s lone franchise-based T20 tournament, in the coming days. Aussies are rarely seen in the BPL.  There were times when one or two Australian cricketers played in the tournament and there were times when few of them are big stars of international cricket and the names of David Warner, Steve Smith, Brad Hodge, Sean Tait, David Hussey, Shane Watson and James Faulkner will come in that list while there were also some other names as well like Chris Lynn, Ben Dunk, Cameron Bancroft, Dan Christian, Ben Laughlin, Fawad Ahmed but it was never a go-to tournament for the Aussies.

This season Australian all-rounder Ben Cutting will play for Sylhet Strikers while there is another Aussies in town as Durdanto Dhaka brought Alex Ross to feature for them.  A few more Australian cricketers may come in midway through the tournament as the franchises are waiting for the T20 League Big Bash in Australia to come to an end.

Ross can be a good example in this regard as even a week ago he was busy in Australia’s T20 league for his side Sydney Thunder but as they failed to make it to the playoffs of the league but as they failed to reach the playoffs the middle order batsman, who played CPL and LPL earlier, accepted the offer to play BPL after Durdanto made the offer. 

Ross, who is known ‘Sweepologist’ in the Australian circuit for his sweep shots arrived in Dhaka two days ago and the 31-year-old right-handed batsman seemed very excited to be in the BPL.

“I am very excited. Everything happened very quickly. I am thrilled to join the team now. I watched a bit of BPL on TV. I watched the first match sitting on the flight. The boys played very well. I am thrilled to join the team,” said Ross adding that he eyeing to the use the experience of LPL as he prepared for BPL.

“I batted for a long time in the nets today and trying to adapt to the conditions. I played Sri Lanka Premier League last year and the experience I gained there will help me here as there are lot of similarities on practice wickets. But I heard from the team players, the match wicket is slightly better,” he said adding nowadays they are well prepared to try and execute their skill as it was tested in Big Bash recently.

“We got bad wickets in some matches in the Big Bash this time. Having some experience playing against the spinning ball, the wicket was also slow. But what I saw on TV is not always the same. I’m just looking forward to playing here,” he said.

“I think the sweep will be very effective here. You don’t want to leave the crease and play too much. Sweeps and reverse sweeps — If I get some boundaries like this, I’ll try. If you can create pressure against spin, especially in short runs, it is good. Hopefully, I can do that,” he said.

One thing is certain that Ben Cutting will get loose sooner than later in batting friendly wicket considering a batsman with 146.96 strike-rate from 209 matches in all forms of T20 cricket isn’t expected to stay calm for long in the middle and Cutting promised the audience to entertain them with fours and sixes. 

“Hopefully, you will see some sixes. I am waiting to hit the field with bat and ball. Hopefully, I can play some good matches,” said Cutting and like Ross, he is also looking forward to playing in Sylhet’s batting paradise.

“I have heard a lot about this wicket. It is difficult to play on this wicket. After playing two matches here, we will go to Sylhet. We will play in front of our home crowd. You’ll want to win five out of five games there, which will set us up for the rest of the tournament,” he said.

The performance of the two Australian in the BPL will be very crucial considering different franchises will be seeing what they can offer for their respective teams and if they can managed to live up to their potential and if they can do that certainly it will motivate them to bring their compatriot in their own dressing room.

The two Australian playing in BPL will be eyeing to make sure they can take their franchise as far as possible as that will not only help them but also pave for other Aussies and if that is case certainly the cash-rich T20 tournament of Bangladesh will get Aussie injection.