Ben McDermott, a chip off the old block
Ben McDermott, son of former Australian pace warhead Craig McDermott, who is a part of Australia’s T20 squad, is confident of carrying his form of Big Bash into the series against Pakistan, which begins on Wednesday.
Ben, who is most likely to debut in the one-off T20 International against UAE today, said he is excited to be in UAE and is very much looking forward to the “challenge.”
“It feels great to be back here in UAE as it is such a cool place to tour. Really looking to playing some good cricket. It’s been a reasonably long wait up to this series — so really looking forward to getting into it tomorrow against UAE,” said Ben, who joined Tasmania from Queensland in 2015 and has emerged as a destructive batsmen in the big Bash League with Hobart Hurricanes.
“I’m feeling good at the moment and, hopefully, I can transform that form into T20 cricket,” added Ben, for whom this not an unfamiliar territory as he was part of the Australia Under-19 team in the UAE Under-19 World Cup in 2014.
“We didn’t do great in that World Cup and lost out to South Africa in which [Kagiso] Rabada came good and ran through us. But yes I’m aware of the conditions here,” said Ben, who revealed that the mood in the Australia camp is still upbeat despite the 1-0 Test series loss to Pakistan.
“We have seen some videos of UAE but not much I would say. We will be studying a bit more about the squad tonight. I’m sure they are an exciting side,” he added.
The match is scheduled for a 2pm start.