BRING ON THE BIG BASH

Q The first Big Bash League game for the season is on Wednesday night, with your Stars opening up against the Thunder two days later. How are you feeling? A I am really looking forward to this BBL. This time last year, myself and the Melbourne Stars did not have a tournament that went to plan. It is nice to have an opportunity to set things right for us. I am in a really good space this year where I am comfortable with my role in the team and feel good about my game. I think as a whole, we are looking forward to going better than what we did last year. Hopefully I can have a better tournament and get the team off to a better start and get the momentum on our side. It comes down to mindset for me, I started off slow last year and I was a little bit unlucky early on. I need to keep a level head always. Q The Stars have retained much of their squad from the last few summers. How do you see your team going in? A We have a great core with guys like Glenn Maxwell (pictured) and Peter Handscomb. We did not get the results we wanted as a team last year but we have such a high quality group, I think we will turn it around at some stage. We have a couple of new faces. Nic Maddinson is a really exciting one to come into our batting line-up. We have two new internationals in Matt Parkinson and Sandeep Lamichhane who will be exciting, too.