New South Wales Blues announce their squad for the 2017/18 season

New South Wales (NSW) Blues have announced the list of contracted players ahead of the 2017/18 season which saw the ouster of senior player Ben Rohrer and pacer Josh Lalor. They have already lost the services of wicketkeeper Ryan Carters, who announced his retirement from sport to pursue higher studies. NSW have added young pacers Charlie Stobo and Henry Thornton to their squad who have been impressive recently.

22-year-old Charlie Stobo, who made his first-class debut last season, is the son of the former NSW fast bowler Richard Stobo. The lanky pacer picked up seven wickets in his debut game against South Australia before an injury ruled him out of the remaining season. Another right-arm pacer Thornton was part of Australia’s U19 squad in 2015. The 20-year-old picked up six wickets in the only Youth Test he played and bagged 13 wickets in 5-match Youth ODI series against England.

“Charlie Stobo has been very impressive in Grade cricket and we identified him quite early as someone of huge interest for us. His line and length bowling is very good. He’s a huge talent,” the NSW coach Trent Johnston was quoted saying to the NSW website.

Rohrer, who has featured in 55 first-class games for NSW, took up the role of state talent manager of Tasmania. However, the left-hander will be seen playing for the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League (BBL). The Australian skipper Steven Smith will be leading his state team as well, who is one of the six players in NSW squad with the Cricket Australia contract.

New South Wales squad:

Cricket Australia Contract: Steven Smith (Captain), David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon.

NSW Contract: Sean Abbott, Doug Bollinger, Harry Conway, Trent Copeland, Ed Cowan, Ben Dwarshuis, Ryan Gibson, Moises Henriques, Daniel Hughes, Nick Larkin, Jay Lenton, Nic Maddinson, Arjun Nair, Peter Nevill, Steve O’Keefe, Kurtis Patterson, Gurinder Sandhu, Will Somerville, Charlie Stobo, Henry Thornton.

Rookies: Mickey Edwards, Dan Fallins, Jordan Gauci, Liam Hatcher, Jason Sangha, Param Uppal.