Exhaustion forces Victoria young gun Will Pucovski out of NSW clash

BATTING sensation Will Pucovski won’t get the chance to back up his mammoth innings of 243 this week after being left out of Victoria’s Sheffield Shield team for the clash with NSW.

Will Pucovski scored a big double century against Western Australia last week.

VICTORIAN cricket officials will take a cautious approach with the health of batting prodigy Will Pucovski who will miss Victoria’s Sheffield Shield clash with NSW starting Thursday.

The 20-year-old has been suffering severe lethargy following his stunning innings of 243 against Western Australia in the opening game of the season last week.

Pucovski batted for more than a day at the WACA and faced 313 balls in his marathon innings as he became the youngest player since Ricky Ponting to score a Shield double-century.

Will Pucovski scored a big double century against Western Australia last week.

It was his second triple-figure score in just seven Shield innings, after he pounded 188 against Queensland last summer, and moved some to suggest he could make a Test debut this summer.

But Cricket Victoria officials revealed he began struggling almost as soon as his innings ended, and he didn’t field on the fourth day as the Vics romped to a big win.

Pucovski has been extremely tired ever since and while tests have ruled out glandular fever his history of concussion issues has prompted medical staff to be extremely cautious with the young star.

“He just doesn’t feel well and hasn’t recovered from the knock in WA as we would have liked,” CV general manager Shaun Graf told the Herald Sun.

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“The opinion of our medical staff was it’s better he doesn’t play, given what has gone on in the past with him. We want to make sure we don’t burn him out.

“He’s never shown any issues like this in the past, but he just feels really tired, we will continue to do more tests and see what we can find and hope he feels better.”

Victorian captain Peter Handscomb, still in awe of Pucovski’s innings in Perth, said he was hopeful the stylish young right-hander would be back for next week’s game against South Australia.

“Just after last week he has gone down with a little bit of exhaustion. The doctors and the medical staff have ruled him out for this game and we are hoping he’s right for next game,” Handscomb said on Wednesday.

Peter Handscomb hopes Will Pucovski will only be out for one game. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Handscomb said the Vics, and Pucovski, weren’t getting caught up in the hype his innings in Perth created.

“It was great the way, even when he was on 180 or 220 he was still playing proper shots and leaving the ball. His mentality was great,” he said.

“But he’s still early on in his career. He has a great handle on his game at the moment, and we’d still like to make sure he’s a certainty for Victoria, which he is for now, but to just keep going and contributing to games and winning games for us, and when he makes that step, which hopefully he does, he’ll be ready for it.”

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