NSW captain Kurtis Patterson dropped from Shield workforce

Since beginning the Shield season with scores of 72 not out, 3, 40, 25 and 122 not out, Patterson has scored simply 155 runs at a median of 14.09 in his final 11 innings with one half-century. Eight of these scores have been single figures together with 1 and 9 in NSW’s final Shield loss to Victoria in Albury.

“Our batting group have been inconsistent recently in delivering the runs necessary to establish the match positions we were looking for,” Shipperd stated.

“We recognise it is a difficult decision to pass on your captain but we are confident Kurtis will regather and draw purpose from this call into the future.

“It was determined to assist constant and inform batters on this season’s final fixture, with the foreign money being runs.”

Moises Henriques will stand in as captain for the match against South Australia at Karen Rolton Oval.

Jason Sangha, Ryan Hackney, Ryan Hadley and Ben Dwarshuis have been included in the squad while last week’s 12th man Blake MacDonald is in-line to make his Shield debut.

Shipperd emphasised the selection changes were based on performance at the lower levels.

“Ryan Hackney has been within the Blues workforce beforehand and has averaged over 65 in Second Xl this season,” Shipperd said.

“Blake MacDonald was within the squad with us for the final match, though he did not play. He has had an outstanding summer time, scoring consecutive Second Xl centuries for ACT / NSW Country in addition to 177 not out in opposition to the touring West Indies aspect. This week within the match between NSW Metro and NSW/ACT Country he scored within the 90’s twice.

“He was given feedback earlier in the season and asked to score more runs and he has more than done that. Those two guys completely demanded selection.

“Similarly, Jason Sangha was not noted of our final match and went away and scored loads of runs on this week’s Second Xl match.

“Ryan Hadley is another who has put the form on the board with an extremely dominant Premier Cricket season.”

NSW Shield squad vs South Australia: Ollie Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Ryan Hackney, Ryan Hadley, Moises Henriques (c), Hayden Kerr, Blake MacDonald, Jason Sangha, Chris Tremain