Come in spinner: Ringwood’s Dylan Walker called up for state Colts match

Some of Victorian cricket’s best prospects will strut their stuff in an Under 19 Colts match against NSW at Ringwood this week.

Ringwood left-arm spinner Dylan Walker.

Out with two leggies, in with an offie.

Victoria has been forced into late changes for the Under 19 Colts match against NSW at Ringwood this week.

Leg-spinners Bailey Toseland (Footscray) and Australian Under 19 representative Vishwa Ramkumar (Dandenong) are out with injury.

Toseland has hurt his shoulder and will have surgery next month, and Ramkumar has a stress fracture in his leg.

Their absences have opened the door for emerging Ringwood left-arm orthodox spinner Dylan Walker to play in the three-day match on his home ground.

Walker is coming off a good performance against reigning premier Carlton; running through the lower-order, he nabbed 4-44 off 15.2 overs.

Ringwood teammates Dylan Walker and Archie Flynn.

Earlier in the season he performed well for the Victorian Metro side at the Under 19 national championships, taking eight wickets, including three against NSW Country.

Ringwood coach Sean Flynn said Walker was making pleasing progress.

“He’s got an old head on young shoulders,’’ he said.

“Every team wants a left-arm finger-spinner who can bowl economically and get some batters out turning the ball away from right-handers.

“I think he’ll go well in the Colts match.’’

Walker played junior cricket at Warburton Millgrove and Seville, in the John Craig Shield for Croydon and linked with Ringwood to play in the Dowling Shield in 2022-23. He made his First XI debut for the Rams last season.

St Kilda top-order batter Reyaan Farooq has also come into the team, which will be captained by Prahran’s Alex Turner.

On Sunday, Turner hit a century for the Prahran Under 18 team against Footscray to lead it into the grand final against Geelong.

It was his second ton in the under-age competition, taking his aggregate to 320 at 53.33

The Colts fixture was revived last year and Victoria hit NSW with the pace of Austin Anlezark and Tyler Pearson.

Their performances created excited chatter among Victorian coaching staff and three months later both were handed state rookie contracts.

This season the speed will come from St Kilda’s Tom Paddington, Northcote’s Archie Lalor, Casey South Melbourne’s Australian Under 19 player Harry Hoekstra and Melbourne’s Christian Howe.

Vics coach Travis Dean said today: “We’re looking for the boys to showcase their skills in the longer format.

“We’ve seen what they’ve got in white-ball cricket – the (national Under 19) tournament was all white-ball and we’ve been doing an emerging T20 block in the past couple of weeks run by the Stars and Renegades – so this (fixture) emulates Shield cricket.

“Most of the players would not have played more than two-day cricket. It will be interesting to see how the bowlers back up and how the batters deal with potential failure in the first innings and trying to bounce back in the second and also vice-versa – if they make runs in the first dig, how do they go about it in the second?

“There are some different challenges.’’

The match will be played at Ringwood on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with 96 overs to be bowled each day.

James Miller and Shane Koop Dean will assist Dean in coaching the Colts.

The Victorian team: Alex Turner (Prahran, captain), Aiman Nadeem (Footscray), Archie Flynn (Ringwood), Christian Howe (Melbourne), Kyle Parrott (Melbourne), Reyaan Farooq (St Kilda), Ashton Frost (Melbourne), Moe Spencer (St Kilda), Archie Lalor (Northcote), Harry Hoekstra (Casey South Melbourne), Dylan Walker (Ringwood), Tom Paddington (St Kilda).

Originally published as Come in spinner: Ringwood’s Dylan Walker called up for state Colts match