Ringwood quick Zak Evans impresses for Australia in under-19 series against Sri Lanka

A YOUNG Melbourne fast bowler is drawing comparisons with James Pattinson, with his school coach calling him the most exciting teenage talent he has seen.

HE has terrorised schoolboy batsmen, broken one’s ankle and is the most exciting teenage talent former Victorian captain and South Australian coach Darren Berry has seen.

He is Ringwood Cricket Club tearaway quick Zak Evans, he has just turned 17 and returned from Tasmania where he impressed in Australia under-19’s series against Sri Lanka.

Evans has raised eyebrows spearheading Xavier College’s school cricket attack, performed for the Rams in Premier Cricket and now for the Aussies where he claimed 12 wickets — three four-wicket hauls — in four matches against the tourists.

Berry has worked closely with Box Hill South’s Evans in his role as Xavier cricket coach and is full of praise for his super talent and mature head.

“Zak’s pace caught me for a school kid. I’d heard about him but hadn’t seen him bowl. He’s the most exciting 16-year-old talent that I’ve ever seen,’’ he said.

“The first session at Xavier he caught my eye and I thought ‘wow this kid is pretty quick’.

“We trialled about 40 kids and he just made a mess of kids that weren’t up to it and I had to say ‘mate just pull it back a bit’.”

If Evans rattled teammates it was only a sign of things to come in the Associated Public Schools competition, according to Berry.

“When James Pattinson was at Haileybury College he terrorised a few kids in school cricket. Sides were intimidated by Zak and it was clear their game plan was to try and see his overs off and if they could do that they’d be all right but when he got wickets for us early we regularly ran through sides,’’ he said.

“He was bowling balls, really good District Cricket, First Class balls, on a good length that were going through to the wicket keeper, but against the school kids he was too fast for them so he was actually wasting the balls and if they did edge those balls none of our players in the slips could catch the thing because it was too fast.

“So I said to him ‘listen this is a good test for you, you need to bowl fuller at the stumps and get blokes bowled and lbw’ so then he was just smashing blokes’ stumps over.

“They were petrified of him, he bowled at the stumps, got blokes out lbw, hit them on the foot, broke one kid’s ankle.”

Zak Evans celebrates a wicket with Australian under-19 teammates. Picture: Cricket Australia.

Evans relished the 16-day series in Tasmania, the chance to prepare and play like a professional cricketer and is now striving for selection for next year’s under-19 world cup in New Zealand.

“It was such a good experience, I really enjoyed it. It’s a privilege to play for Australia and I was just happy to get the opportunity,’’ he said.

“I had a managed workload before that first game, so I felt a bit rusty, but after that I felt like I was getting better and better and my rhythm was getting better.

“I really enjoyed the challenge of bowling to the Sri Lankan batsmen, your bad balls would get punished but I felt like it brought out the best of me.

“The big, overall goal now is the world cup next year but I’ve got to perform in the under-19 state carnival first.”

When school cricket commitments allowed, Evans turned out for Ringwood in seven games last summer and despite bowling restrictions took 10 wickets with best figures of 4-51 in a one-dayer against Prahran.

“I love playing for Ringwood and it’s been really beneficial coming in and bowling to older guys and some First Class cricketers who can hit the ball hard and put the bad balls away,’’ he said.

“It really helped me work out my line and length and the areas I need to bowl more often and that’s helped with school and representative cricket.”

Evans will now take a well-deserved two-month break from cricket and continue his focus on Year 11 before getting back into bowling and pre-season ahead of another busy summer.