Beau Webster backs Tasmanian star Ben McDermott to find his best
Tasmania has dropped one of its stars for a season defining Sheffield Shield outing but a teammate has backed him to get to his best, if he does choose to keep playing the longer form.
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Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster has backed Ben McDermott to rediscover his best form after he was dropped for his side’s season defining Sheffield Shield clash.
McDermott and Peter Siddle (rested) have been replaced in the 13-man squad to take on Western Australia in Perth by Lawrence Neil-Smith and Mac Wright.
The explosive McDermott has struggled to find his best with the bat this season scoring just 238 runs at an average of 18.31 in 14 Shield innings this season.
And with the 28-year-old putting together another strong Big Bash League season, there has been suggestions he could put a greater focus on the white ball.
But Webster is backing McDermott to find his way back into the Tigers’ line-up — even if it isn’t until next season.
“It’s never nice to be left out of the team, everybody wants to be playing for Tasmania in all formats and he’s one of my close mates,” Webster said.
“And I know he’s hurting from missing this game and potentially the last game. But I’m sure he will bounce back.
“He’s a world class player, we’ve seen what he can do in both white and red ball so I’m sure he will be fine.
“It’s a massive carrot (T20 tournaments) I suppose for the players and moving forward the white ball lure is getting more and more with these competitions popping up everywhere and offering good dollars for short amounts of time.
“Not many people can do what he does in the white ball (format) so I’m sure he would be thinking about it.
“Going forward, I’m not sure what he’s in for — it could be that or it could be more years in red ball and wanting to play test cricket which is the dream of many cricketers going around at the moment.”
Despite sitting fifth on the ladder, Tassie remains an outside chance to reach the Shield decider but would need to find its best once again.
Tassie will be looking to overturn a 383-run loss just a week ago.
“There’s two games left in the Shield season and a spot in the final up for grabs if we can win both of them,” he said.
“No doubt it’s going to be a big task over in the west, they’re an excellent team. It showed last week how good they are our home deck but hopefully we can bounce back and get a result we want.”
The Tigers clash with WA starts at the WACA Ground at 1.30pm on Thursday.
Originally published as Beau Webster backs Tasmanian star Ben McDermott to find his best
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