Nathan Coulter-Nile and Andrew Tye axed: Western Australia have dropped their two senior white-ball specialists for upcoming Sheffield Shield season.
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Western Australia have dropped tried and tested fast bowlers in Nathan Coulter-Nile and Andrew Tye from their squad for the upcoming Sheffield Shied season. The significant move has been taken with an intention of winning the illustrious trophy after 21 years.
In the nine matches that they played last season, Western Australia finished at the fifth position on the points table on the back of two wins and three losses primarily owing to injuries to their pacers especially during the second half of the tournament.
Fast bowler Cameron Gannon, who finished as the highest wicket-taker last season on the back of picking 38 wickets at an average of 20.92 and a strike rate of 46.5 for Queensland, has been signed for three years by Western Australia.
Uncapped spearhead Lance Morris, who played five matches for Melbourne Stars in last year’s Big Bash League, has managed to earn a full contract for this season.
Nathan Coulter-Nile and Andrew Tye axed
With Counter-Nile and Tye not playing a first-class match since 2017 and 2018 respectively due to several reasons, Western Australia seem to have made a wise decision by including a couple of young pacers.
Last season’s Sheffield Shield leading wicket-taker Cam Gannon can’t wait to start training with the boys! 😎 #WESTISBEST pic.twitter.com/VP9KufcwIN
— WACA (@WACA_Cricket) June 23, 2020
While Coulter-Nile might move to Victoria after not getting a Western Australia contract, Tye is expected to stay back at Western Australia for the Marsh Cup in the hope of a contract upgrade.
Not speaking about dropping the senior duo, head coach Adam Voges did express disappointment at their performance last season. “Our focus, no doubt, will be to improve our Sheffield Shield results, we were disappointing at the back end of last season and will be looking to rectify that this year.
“We identified at the end of last season that our bowling depth in Shield cricket and our spin stocks needed a boost,” Voges was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
Western Australia Men’s squad for Sheffield Shield 2020-21
Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Jake Carder, Hilton Cartwright, Cameron Gannon, Cameron Green, Liam Guthrie, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kelly, Shaun Marsh, David Moody, Lance Morris, Liam O’Connor, Joel Paris, Josh Philippe, D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Sam Whiteman.
