“Mike Hussey debuted at 30”: Peter Handscomb hopeful of Australian comeback ahead of Sheffield Shield 2022-23 season

Victorian Peter Handscomb has said that he is hopeful for an Australian comeback after a brilliant Sheffield Shield season.

South Australia will be up against Victoria in the 3rd match of the Sheffield Shield 2022-23 at the Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide. Both sides would want to start their campaign with a win.

The Victorian side reached the finals of the tournament last time around, and this time they would like to lift the coveted Shield. They have some excellent players in their ranks for the first match, and they will be eager to start the tournament with a bang.

Peter Handscomb will lead the side, and he would want to repeat his last season’s heroics, whereas Will Pucovski is also back with the senior side. Scott Boland, who took the Australian summer by storm last season will lead the pace attack. Nic Maddinson will also play a huge role for the team.

Peter Handscomb hopeful of Australian comeback ahead of Sheffield Shield 2022-23

Peter Handscomb has not played an international game for Australia since 2019, but he is said to be on the radar to make his Australian comeback on the upcoming Indian tour. He is said to be a good player of spin, and he has played some great knocks as well in the subcontinent.

Ahead of Victoria’s first match in the Sheffield Shield 2022-23, Handscomb said that he likes playing the spinners, but he has performed well against the quick bowlers as well. Although, he insists that if playing spin well can earn him a comeback, he will be happy with that as well.

“I do like playing against spin but I’ve also played in Australia for most of my career, which is mainly against quicks, so I like to think I can still play the fastball,” Handscomb said on the Vic State Cricket Podcast.

“If (being a good player of spin) does help me get on subcontinent tours, which it has done before, then that’s great.”

Handscomb, who is 31 years of age, finished as the highest run-scorer of the Sheffield Shield last season. He scored 697 runs at 49.78 with the help of 2 centuries and 3 half-centuries. Handscomb insists that there have been some great players who started their careers late, but they still contributed for good.

“Mike Hussey debuted at 30 and had a pretty good Test career and even Chris Rogers started playing again at 35 and played for a couple of years, so it’s definitely not out of the realms to play again,” Handscomb added.