Last Updated on 2 hours ago by Charbel Coorey
Corey Rocchiccioli has reminded national selectors of his quality, taking 6/82 for Cricket Australia XI on day one of the tour match against Bangladesh in Darwin.
Rocchiccioli took three wickets before lunch, dismissing Shadman Islam (35), Mominul Haque (15) and Mushfiqur Rahim (0). He then took a further three scalps to finish with six wickets in his 24 overs as Bangladesh reached 263 thanks to Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s classy, unbeaten 109.
Corey Rocchiccioli sends reminder to selectors after making use of Darwin conditions
Rocchiccioli is a proven performer in Sheffield Shield cricket over a number of years. Standing at 6 ft 3 and possessing an action that allows him to generate overspin, the offspinner has the kind of attributes that have made Nathan Lyon very successful.
Last season, Rocchiccioli took 38 wickets at 28.18 in the Sheffield Shield for Western Australia. More impressive is the fact that Shield pitches have been largely seamer-friendly in recent years.
Speaking after the day’s play in Darwin, Rocchiccioli says his dream is to play for Australia. The 28-year-old is motivated to continue performing to keep himself in the Test frame.
“It is a dream. I want to play Test cricket and play for Australia but right now my journey and my stepping stone is… playing what is in front of me,” Rocchiccioli said, as quoted by cricket.com.au.
“If you keep performing you get the right to have your name in the calculations.”
The Darwin surface showed signs of turn early. Rocchiccioli was able to extract spin, regularly testing the outside edge of the left-handers.
“It was a different wicket to what I was expecting. I have played a lot of games up here and a lot of the time it is not as tacky or spinny early as it was today,” he said.
“I was quite happy when we got to bowl.”
CA XI then lost their first two wickets for just a single run after Sam Konstas (1) and Campbell Kellaway (0) missed out. Kurtis Patterson (26*) and Josh Philippe (22*) steadied the ship somewhat to take the hosts to 51/2 at stumps.
