Can Ben crack on to net World Cup spot
BEN McDermott said forcing his way into the Australian team in time for next year’s T20 World Cup on home soil was “definitely the goal”, after the history-making Hurricanes opener became the first ever Big Bash player to score back-to-back centuries.
McDermott backed up his innings of 110 against the Adelaide Strikers on Monday night with a stunning 127 off 65 balls against the Melbourne Renegades just 48 hours later. In doing so, he also became the first player to score three hundreds in the competition, and stamped his authority as the BBL’s most in-form player.
The stunning run of form has led to questions of whether the 27-year-old can crack into Australia’s World Cup winning T20 side.
With a home World Cup just over 10 months’ away, McDermott said that while it was on his radar, he acknowledged the difficulty of forcing his way into a winning side.
“It’s definitely the goal,” he said after the innings of 127, the third-highest ever BBL knock. “But there’s a lot of talent at the top of the order there. Not even just the top order, throughout that whole line-up — they’ve just won a World Cup so I don’t think the squad’s doing anything wrong. You never know, it’d be great to be there and among another World Cup win, it looked pretty fun.”
Asked what might be the catalyst to getting into the side, he said it was likely things outside his control.
“I think just when one of those big boys are done,” he said. “And just (being in the) right place, right time. If I can keep scoring runs, then when they want to retire maybe I’ll slip in there. But I don’t know, I’m not really thinking about that too much at the moment. I’m just enjoying myself in the Big Bash. I love this time of the year, it’s good fun.”
Once a Renegade, McDermott played just two games for the club in 2015/16, scoring nine runs in two innings, and was never asked to return.
“They didn’t want me back when I originally came,” he said. “I think I played two games to start with here, at the start of my Big Bash career, and tried so hard to get back, living on Chapel Street and playing at a really nice ground that I love. But yeah, I just went back home.”
The move paid off — in spades. The very next season McDermott scored a century against the Renegades at Marvel Stadium, a feat he repeated on Wednesday night.
He said the short square boundaries of the Docklands venue suited his style of play.
Further, McDermott added that a recent technical tweak has seen him “loosen his hands” to ensure a greater swing of the bat, something that had contributed to his incredible purple patch.
His record-breaking evening saw him go 58 runs clear as the BBL|11 leading runscorer, ahead of the Sydney Sixers’ Josh Philippe.