the Sheffield Shield, brought to you by a soggy breakfast: SA

SA, the South Australian bare backs

Players that wont be available for large chunks of the season

Um, maybe Shaun Tait.

South Australia will have a full strength side, which for them still isn’t much.

Last year there best player was Ryan Harris, who is in Queensland now.

Gillespie, Blewett, Elliott, and Lehmann are all gone.

So is Nathan Adcock, but thats a good thing.

Hard to see them getting to much better, they went on a huge recruiting drive and all the ended up with was two fringe players from Victoria and a bunch of players barely in the squad in NSWales.

Leadership

Well after the leadership debacle that was Nathan Adcock South Australia have picked the logical option.

Graham Manou isn’t going to be dropped, and last year was probably the best batsman, and second best player behind Harris.

Good leader, but probably not the best captain going around.

Bowling

A full year of Shaun Tait will be handy. Only a handful of state cricketers have ever taken over 70 wickets in a year and he is one.

Guys like Rofe, Wise and Clearly are all just state players, and none of which are match winning bowlers.

The two Cullens, Bailey and Daniel, are still around. Wouldn’t be great if one of them took wickets this year.

Batting

The two imports, Younis Khan and Michel Klinger, will probably be the best two batsman in this side.

They might have issues though, one being a muslim, and one being a jew. Throw in Christian at 5, an aboriginal, and you have the minority middle order.

Mark Cosgrove is the only other batsman who is legit. So he becomes mega important, especially when Khan goes home.

Their top order is so fragile, that they might have to take drastic measures and play Michael Vaughan after Younis Khan pisses off.

As if buying Klinger wasn’t embarrassing enough.

Long in the tooth

If this isn’t Paul Rofe’s last year, South Australia will be shit for at least two more years.

Ready to shed the nappies

No real young players who inspire me with confidence, but I am a big fan of Daniel Christian, a batting all rounder who bowls into the 140’s.

Nostradamus

Shield

5th.

One day

5th.

2020

4th.

The rub

They were rubbish last year, but they will have to improve, wont they?

The Hayden Christensen XIwww.cricketwithballs.com... Aussie Haiku straight to your box