Tara Murray
Hoppers Crossing hopes it has the depth to cover a couple of key departures in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west season.
The Cats have kept their core group together but have lost two of their biggest names in Fawad Ahmed and Sanka Beyruwan.
Cats captain-coach Simon Lambert said they were keen for the season to get underway.
“We’ve been training pretty nicely,” he said. “We’ve lost players from last year in Fawad and Sanka, who obviously had a big impact with the ball last year.
“We do think we’ve strengthened our side. We have plenty of depth with the bat and ball. I think our best will be up there.”
The Cats main aim was to try and fill the gaps in their batting order first in the off season.
Haseeb Qureshi comes across from the Greenvale Kangaroos having played 50 first XI Victorian Premier Cricket games.
A friend of Shijit Chandran, who has played under-19 cricket for India, is coming out to Australia and will be another.
Shadi Sideek from Port Melbourne is another bit that is likely to fit into the first XI.
Bibek Virk, who has led the batting for the Cats second XI the past two years, will start the season in the top side and will open the batting with Lambert.
Lambert said his new opening partner deserved his opportunity in the top side.
On the other side, Lambert said they would look within for the most part to replace Ahmed and Beyruwan
“Those two guys took 70 wickets between them,” he said. “Wajh Ali Bangash, who played a little bit with Sunshine United, is a spinner.
“The way he is bowling in the pre-season, he will hopefully fill a whole. There’s still myself and Shijit and we have four seamers.
“Brett Smith is looking to have his first full year bowling in three seasons which is a huge plus.
“We’ll look to give some of the younger guys a go with the ball as well.”
Lambert said they’ll have 10 players who have bowled in the first XI in recent years in the lower grades showing their depth.
After just missing out on finals last year after being in the top six for most of the year, Lambert said they know what they need to do to make finals this time round.
“We have more than enough bowling coverage,” he said. “Our batting line up needs to stand up.
“We had four guys the year before who made between 400 and 600 runs, last year we only had one.
“If we bat to the best of our ability, I’m fairly confident we’ll win more games than not. Hopefully we show up like we know that we can.”
The Warriors first round match against Brighton is now a one-dayer after the first day of play was cancelled due to not enough grounds ready.
