Sean Abbott sets sights on vacant ‘Finisher’ role in Australia’s World Cup squad
SEAN Abbott has set his focus on bowling heat this summer as the NSW enforcer primes himself for a shot at a vital vacant position in Australia’s World Cup squad.
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SEAN Abbott has set his focus on bowling heat this summer as the NSW enforcer gears himself for a shot at the vacant “Finisher” position in Australia’s World Cup squad.
Selectors have a myriad of holes to plug in Australia’s struggling one-day outfit only a few months out from the World Cup defence in England, but none more important than filling the enormous shoes vacated by the hero of the 2015 triumph, James “The Finisher” Faulkner.
Abbott will launch his campaign for NSW at the WACA on Tuesday in the best condition and headspace of his young career after combining forces in the off-season with renowned conditioning expert and former NSW Waratah, Tom Carter.
John Hastings played the Faulkner role successfully for Australia for a couple of years after the last World Cup, and now believes his new Sydney Sixers teammate Abbott is capable of taking the baton and nailing the specialist ODI position, combining wicket-taking with late-order hitting.
Carter’s work with Abbott has centred on the 26-year-old finding an “identity” and in cricket terms that has meant reverting to his absolute strength of bowling fast and exploiting reverse swing.
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Abbott hasn’t played for his country since 2014 but says the work he’s put in has him feeling poised for a breakout year.
“This has been the best I’ve prepared coming into a season. I’ve done a lot of learning the last few years and tried a lot of things I thought were the correct way to do things,” Abbott told The Daily Telegraph ahead of NSW’s opening JLT Cup clash against Western Australia which will be live on Fox Cricket.
“Tommy works me hard but he’s also someone who has always been able to have honest conversations with me when I need it.
“ … For the most part it has been about what’s happening at the other end and how I’m thinking at a particular time and trying to do things that keep me relaxed and identify those and taking them into a game.
“That when I’m faced with those one-on-one battles in the game with the guy down the other end, I really lift in those moments.”
Carter looks back on his own rugby career and how he changed his style to suit the desires of different coaches rather than playing to what his strengths were, and now he’s turning that experience into his great inspiration as a motivator and mentor.
“I think he’s really struggled with an identity of what he was … I said to him, ‘look mate I didn’t play for (the Wallabies) for a number of reasons but my biggest regret was I tried to be something I wasn’t,’” says Carter, who worked three years with the Sixers before putting his energy into his own fitness enterprise.
“I said, ‘as long as you are true to yourself and true to your own identity I think you can do quite extraordinary things’.
“We worked really hard around that, it was probably the most he’s ever applied himself and the results were there to be seen. Now he’s got to get wickets.
“I don’t have anything to do with cricket so I’m able to have pretty honest conversations and the best I ever experienced with that was Brad Haddin.
“I think Sean’s upbringing and life’s events have certainly challenged him and what I enjoy most is his courage to keep on going. I find that quite inspiring.
“We talk about resilience and we talk about toughness but I think he’s got a very stoic and strong character and he needs to be commended for that.”
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