James Pattinson will miss the summer of cricket following back surgery
IN a massive blow for the Melbourne Renegades, James Pattinson will not bowl a ball this summer following his back surgery. Find out how the club plans to replace him.
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JAMES Pattinson’s back surgery has ruled him out of the summer in the latest blow to the fast bowler’s stop-start career.
Melbourne Renegades will spend the weekend hunting replacement players for Pattinson and Guy Walker (shoulder) following last week’s withdrawal of West Indies import Sunil Narine because of personal reasons.
Walker suffered a setback from the shoulder reconstruction he underwent last season.
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Pattinson, 27, starred for Victoria in the back half of last summer’s Sheffield Shield season and then claimed 32 wickets from five county matches in England.
But he has not played since July 1 and that lay-off is likely to extend for months.
“He’s been ruled out of the tournament. He won’t play at any stage during the Big Bash,” Renegades and Bushrangers coach Andrew McDonald said.
“We’ll look to settle on a couple of replacement players.
“At this stage (Pattinson) is recovering from the surgery. I dare say that like most operations the surgeon will check in with him a month afterwards and then we’ll get a bit more clarity and direction.
“At this stage it’s highly unlikely he’ll see any action this summer. It’s more how the surgery goes a month down the track and then you start the rehabilitation of strengthening things in and around that.
“That can take some time. At this stage it all looks successful and Patto’s pretty comfortable with where things are at.”
While Pattinson’s setback denies the Gades a wicket-taker, McDonald was content with the balance of his squad.
West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo is due to arrive Sunday while Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi hopes to arrive by Tuesday as the Renegades prepare for their season-opener against Hobart at Bellerive Oval on Thursday.
Nabi was signed last week after Narine withdrew and is sorting out his visa.
“We feel as though we’ve made some really significant improvements in a few areas that were deficient last season,” McDonald said.
“Statistically, we’ve only made the finals once ever, so we’ve probably been one of the poorer performing franchises.
“But over the last couple of years we’ve been able to get the list that we want together and we’ve got some stability there.
“I think that’s been the detriment of previous lists, and that’s not being critical to predecessors, but there seemed to be a lot of chopping and changing and not a lot of continuity.”
The Gades beat Brisbane Heat by 20 runs in Friday night’s Maroochydore practice match as Tom Cooper and young recruit Jack Wildermuth starred.
Cooper hit 68 (46) and then Wildermuth finished unbeaten on 53 (25) to help Melbourne post 6-169.
Brad Hogg took 1-19 off four overs while recruit Kane Richardson claimed 2-30.
Cameron White captained the Renegades in the absence of Aaron Finch (rested).
The teams will play another scratch match Saturday.
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