Marsh One-Day Cup preview: Victoria

Defending champions Victoria again loom as a major threat in this season’s rebranded, revamped domestic one-day tournament – the Marsh One-Day Cup.

Having been played as a single block of matches at the beginning of the season for the past six years, this summer’s tournament will span more than two months from September 21 to November 26 and be split by breaks for the Marsh Sheffield Shield, while teams could also lose players during the tournament due to Australia’s T20 series against Sri Lanka as well as their T20 and Test campaigns against Pakistan.

The Vics have Aussie one-day stars Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell and Peter Handscomb available for at least the opening two weeks of the tournament, but they’ll have to wait to welcome back Ashes players Marcus Harris, James Pattinson and Peter Siddle, who have been rested from the opening two games.

The Vics tuned up with three practice matches against New Zealand side Northern Districts in Melbourne last week ahead of their season opener against Western Australia in Perth on September 21.

Cricket.com.au spoke to Victoria coach Andrew McDonald to preview the tournament.

Squad

The Vics have named the following squad for their opening two matches in Perth, minus Ashes players Marcus Harris, Peter Siddle and James Pattinson: Peter Handscomb (c), Scott Boland, Jackson Coleman, Travis Dean, Andrew Fekete, Aaron Finch, Sam Harper, Mackenzie Harvey, Jon Holland, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Will Pucovski, Matthew Short, Will Sutherland, Chris Tremain

CA contracts: Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle. Victoria contracts: Aaron Ayre, Scott Boland, Jackson Coleman, Xavier Crone, Travis Dean, Zak Evans, Andrew Fekete, Sebastian Gotch, Sam Harper, Mackenzie Harvey, Jon Holland, Nic Maddinson, Tom O’Connell, Will Pucovski, Jake Reed, Matthew Short, Will Sutherland, Chris Tremain, Eamonn Vines. Rookies: Sam Elliott, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Jonathan Merlo, Ed Newman, Mitchell Perry, Patrick Rowe.

Possible Best XI: Aaron Finch, Marcus Harris, Will Pucovski, Peter Handscomb (wk & c), Glenn Maxwell, Nic Maddinson, Will Sutherland, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Chris Tremaina, Jon Holland

2018 result: Champions

FULL MARSH ONE-DAY CUP FIXTURES HERE

Fixtures

Sep 21: v WA at the WACA Ground (Cricket Network & Kayo)

Sep 23: v Tas at the WACA Ground (Cricket Network & Kayo)

Sep 29: v Qld at the CitiPower Centre (Fox Cricket & Kayo)

Oct 1: v Qld at the CitiPower Centre (Fox Cricket & Kayo)

Oct 23: v WA at the WACA Ground (Cricket Network & Kayo)

Nov 17: v NSW at the MCG (Fox Cricket & Kayo)

Nov 19: v SA at the MCG (Fox Cricket & Kayo)

The inside word with Andrew McDonald

The pre-season

It’s always disjointed in the current landscape … and we had a pretty big contingent in the Australia and Australia A set-up in the UK. So pre-seasons have become really individual these days and it’s rare that you get the group all in the building at any one time. So that’s always a challenge but it does allow us to be really specific with individual player builds. We’ll bring it together as a team as we get closer to the season.

Injury update

We’re pretty clear in terms of that. Our bowlers are all in reasonable shape and we haven’t had any major setbacks at this stage.

Young gun

Zak Evans has been through the Under-19 pathway and played in the last Under-19 World Cup. He’s a fast bowler with some good variety, he can bat a bit and he’s pretty dynamic in the field, so we see him as a short-form player, while not dismissing his red-ball stuff either. He can open the bowling and bowl at good pace in the high 130s, so we’re excited to see what he can bring.

The positive with the one-dayers being strung out during the season is fast bowlers might not be in great shape leading into a one-day game on the back of a Shield game. So that may create opportunities for some bowlers … young guys like Evans, Mitchell Perry and Xavier Crone may see some game time.

Player to watch

Will Pucovski played a few games one-day two seasons ago but last year we were quite strong at the top of the order. We see him as a top-order player in one-day cricket and there just purely wasn’t a spot for him. With Finch and Harris at the top, it’s been hard to squeeze him in. Cameron White has been there before as well, but he’s not here this year. We’ve seen what Will can do in four-day cricket and we’re excited to maybe offer him some opportunities in one-day cricket to show what he can do. I think he’ll be able to adapt. He’s a very smart player.

What’s your team’s biggest strength?

I think we’re pretty balanced across the board and we’ve got some hard decisions to just even pick our squad for those first few games. We’ve got dynamic players at the top, some good thinking cricketers in the middle and then some guys who can finish the innings. We’ll also have Jon Holland back for us this year to bowl in the middle and we’ve got plenty of depth with our fast bowlers. We think we’re pretty well-positioned. We’re by no means the favourites – I wouldn’t put us in the same category as WA – but we’ll certainly be competitive.

Who’s the biggest threat?

I think Western Australia last year in the regular season were the strongest team … to me they’re clearly the standout side and are going to be the toughest opponent. Not disregarding the other sides at all, but they’ve just always had a great list and are always competitive in all formats. I see them as the clear favourites.

What do you make of the new-look schedule?

I think the challenge with this schedule will be management of your squad, so that tests your depth. I think it’s a good thing because it allows some natural spots to open up with guys not being available for one-day cricket on the back of heavy workloads in the four-dayers.

With the old system, if you have white-ball players in your squad who are still developing their red-ball cricket, their season was pretty much over really early. I think playing it later into the season gives it more credibility from a public point of view.

And getting one-day cricket back on the main grounds again is a real positive. It’s a great precursor for people who are going to play for Australia eventually.