JLT One-Day Cup 2017

The my FootDr Queensland Bulls will begin their JLT One Day Cup campaign next week at Allan Border Field.

The 14-man squad is headed by recent Australian Test squad members Usman Khawaja, Matthew Renshaw and Mitch Swepson as well as last season’s One Day International debutants Billy Stanlake and Sam Heazlett.

The squad includes nine members of the team that made the Final of the One Day Cup last season, only to lose to NSW.

Player of the tournament Marnus Labuschagne and Ian Healy Trophy Bulls Player of the Year Michael Neser, who took 3-20 against the Blues in the decider, were both prominent performers in last season’s limited overs tournament.

The Bulls won two of their three State practice camp matches this month and will fine-tune their preparations for next week’s tournament opener tomorrow when they play the Auckland Aces in a pre-season tour match at Bill Pippen Oval at Kerrydale, Robina.

Allrounder Ben Cutting returns to training this week after playing three T20I matches last week with the World XI in the return of international cricket to Pakistan.

There is one newcomer to the squad in pace bowler Brendan Doggett, with the 23-year-old Toowoomba product a first-time contracted player with the Bulls.

Doggett, who helped Wests win the Queensland Premier Cricket competition last summer, played for the Cricket Australia XI last season in the domestic One Day competition and was a member of the 2017 National Performance Squad based at the Bupa National Cricket Centre during the winter.

Doggett came into the Queensland High Performance pathway through the Queensland Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander XI which competes in the National Indigenous Championships.

He is the only member of the squad yet to debut for the Bulls, and if selected, would become the first male Indigenous player to represent Queensland since paceman Michael Mainhardt who played three first class and three List A games between 1980-81 and 1986-87.

Renshaw made his List A debut for the Bulls last season, scoring 88 and 38 before suffering a knee injury in the second match of the tournament that sidelined him until the end of the series.

Queensland coach Wade Seccombe said he was pleased with Queensland’s pre-season preparation.

“We tried to give everyone a decent opportunity for playing time and in general, it worked pretty well,’’ he said.

“The State camp matches and other games against the National Indigenous squad were very competitive and that has given us a nice springboard for the JLT Cup.

“It’s also been encouraging to see so many of the squad perform solidly for their Premier clubs in the past few weeks and that assists everyone in terms of delivering an outstanding high performance system for the players.”

“There were several players who were probably a bit unlucky to miss out but they will keep working hard and be ready to go if called upon,” Seccombe said.

Several Bulls squad players stood out in the weekend round of Kookaburra One-Day Cup competition games in Premier Cricket.

Khawaja hit 79 off 85 balls (8 x 4s and 2 x 6s) on Saturday for Valley and fell just five runs short of Matthew Hayden’s club record one-day score on Sunday on the way to scoring 162 off 136 balls (17 x 4s and 5 x 6s).

Neser hit 94 off as many balls for the Gold Coast Dolphins on Saturday in an innings dominated by Bulls rookie Max Bryant who plundered a remarkable 98 runs in boundaries in his thumping knock of 134 from just 92 balls.

Labuschagne (60) and Joe Burns (59) hit half centuries in wins for Redlands and Norths respectively while Heazlett hit 83 in a losing effort for Redlands and Renshaw produced 62 for Toombul on Sunday. Burns also hit 48 in his other match.

Swepson’s 3-26 from 10 overs helped Sandgate-Redcliffe defeat Ipswich/Logan and stay undefeated in the one-day competition.

Another stand-out Bulls performer was batsman Sam Truloff who scored 123 and 94 for Wests as they won each of their matches.

2017-18 JLT One Day Cup - my FootDr Queensland Bulls squad

Usman Khawaja (c), Joe Burns, Ben Cutting, Brendan Doggett, Jason Floros, Cameron Gannon, Sam Heazlett, Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, James Peirson, Matthew Renshaw, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Swepson, Jack Wildermuth

The JLT Cup opens next Wednesday 27 September when South Australia plays the Cricket Australia XI at Allan Border Field.

The Bulls will play the Cricket Australia XI next Friday 29 September in their opening match and then meet South Australia on Sunday 1 October.

Queensland then plays three matches in Sydney against Victoria, WA and NSW before heading to Hobart to play Tasmania. Full fixture list here.