While the Australian cricketer D’Arcy Short is fighting for his place as an opener in the national team, he is also ready to play as an effective bowler.
Once again, D’Arcy Short won the Player of the Tournament award in the recently concluded 2018/19 Big Bash League (BBL). Like the previous season, he finished once again as the leading run-scorer in the tournament, and this time he scored more runs. While he scored 572 runs (average 57.20) in the last season, he scored 637 runs (average 53.08) in BBL 2018/19.
However, this time D’Arcy Short won the Player of the Tournament award for his all-round performances in the tournament. As a slow left-arm chinaman bowler, he was useful and picked up ten wickets in this BBL season.
D’Arcy Short is now looking forward to the limited-overs away series against India. The host India and the visitors Australia will play the two-match T20I and five-match ODI series from 24 February to 13 March. D’Arcy Short is in both the limited-overs squads and he is focusing on being more useful for his national team this time.
Sridharan Sriram believes in D’Arcy Short
The spin-bowling coach Sridharan Sriram is confident about D’Arcy Short’s bowling after observing his recent BBL success. Sridharan Sriram also talked with him about his bowling skills to improve.
The former Indian cricketer said according to cricket.com.au, “We’ve seen in the Big Bash, he’s bowled a lot more than the previous years which I think is a very good sign for our cricket team going forward. He’s come a long way. One of the main things we talked about was aligning his technique and then consistency of length.
“In international cricket it goes without saying, consistency of length is going to be very, very important. If he can do that and spin the ball both ways, which he does, when he’s bowling at his best I think he offers a lot to the team along with his batting.”
D’Arcy Short is ready for the bowling duty
Sridharan Sriram worked with D’Arcy Short for the first time during Australia A tour of India last year. The Aussie cricketer admitted the important influence of Sridharan Sriram to evolve him as a useful bowler. The 28-year-old is ready to take the crucial role in ODI bowling as he hopes that it will go in his favour during the team selection.
D’Arcy Short said, “Just to keep things simple and keep my momentum going forward and energy through the crease. I did a lot of work with him in the A tour in August and September. That was good then and I’ve done a bit of work with him yesterday and today, just refining things and getting a little bit better.
“If I can give two or three overs or even four or five in one-day cricket then it’s always going to help my selection in the end and hopefully it goes in my favour.”
D’Arcy Short has picked up only two wickets in his international career. While he hasn’t opened his ODI wicket account, he has picked up two wickets in T20I career.