Was lost for words, says Ben Dwarshuis on his maiden Australia call-up

Sydney Sixers pacer Ben Dwarshuis has not had the greatest of times in the Big Bash League this year. He is not the leading performer but has surely been one of the consistent players in the league. It is perhaps because of this very reason that he received his maiden national call-up recently. Australia is set to host New Zealand and England for a T20I tri-series commencing on February 3.

The Australian selectors recently named the 14-member squad for the series. As per the quotes in smh.com.au, when Ben Dwarshuis received a call from national selector Mark Waugh, he was lost for words. He had not expected a call up and was overly thrilled with his selection. He cited that playing for Australia is always the ultimate goal for every aspiring cricketer in the country.

“I was a little bit sceptical at first, it was very much out of the blue. Personally I think I’ve been bowling pretty well but it still came as a big shock to get the call from Mark Waugh. I was a little bit lost for words at first,” quoted Ben Dwarshuis.

“You always aspire to play for Australia, as a young kid growing up it was always an ultimate goal. Every time that you go out and play for your domestic team you’re looking to perform well and then hopefully get that selection into the national outfit,” he quoted.

Ben Dwarshuis in good books of Mark Waugh

The Australian chief selector and former cricketer, Mark Waugh, also looked quite impressed with Ben Dwarshuis. He picked him ahead of Dwarshuis’ Sydney Sixers teammate Sean Abbott owing to the extra yards of pace that he has. It is worth noting that Abbott has been the leading wicket taker in the tournament thus far but has been ignored for the international assignment.

“He has improved out of sight from year-to-year. He’s put on five or six kilometres in pace, he’s been hovering around the low 140s every game and I think with the bowling attack you need variety in one-day cricket and he offers the left-arm variety, all the other bowlers are right-armers,” mentioned Mark Waugh about Ben Dwarshuis.

D’Arcy Short – The new Warner?

Meanwhile, another exciting talent who has been rewarded for a good show in the BBL is D’Arcy Short of the Hobart Hurricanes. Short has amassed 504 runs in the competition thus far. This is the highest aggregate in a BBL season. He has a ton to his name in the season as well. Speaking about him, Mark Waugh noted that Short is a lot like David Warner.

“He reminds me of David Warner a bit with his clean ball-striking. He’s come from nowhere for a lot of us, I hadn’t seen him before last year in the Big Bash. He put together a lot of good innings there but this year he has gone to the next level. He’s the sort of player that has that X-factor. He’s got good left-arm wristies as well. He’s the sort of player we want to keep coming through. We’ve got to keep regenerating our squad, he’s the type of player who can do that,” Waugh mentioned.

Australia T20I squad for T20I tri-series

David Warner (c), Aaron Finch, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

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