The Victorian Bushrangers have announced their playing squad for the upcoming 2017-18 domestic cricket season, and have named a new captain.
Peter Handscomb will be the skipper of a 30-man squad, who will set out to defend their Sheffield Shield title and the One-Day Cup.
Handscomb will take over from former captain Matthew Wade, who has joined Tasmania for the upcoming campaign.
“It’s an absolute honour and privilege to be named captain of Victoria, and something I take a lot of pride in,” Handscomb told bushrangers.com.au.
“To be able to lead such a strong and successful team that has won three Sheffield Shield titles in a row is an amazing opportunity.
“Following in the footsteps of some Victorian greats like Bill Lawry and more recently Cameron White and Matthew Wade who have led Victoria to so much success, is exciting.
Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson as well as Handscomb are the four Cricket Australia players contracted, while a number of young players have been elevated to full-time contracts.
“Our ongoing focus has been on developing players ready for Australian selection while also being highly competitive at domestic level," Cricket Victoria General Manager of Cricket Shaun Graf told bushrangers.com.au.
"The results clearly show we’re achieving this goal with 13 Victorians representing Australia across all formats in the same period we’ve won three straight Sheffield Shield titles.”
Victorian Bushrangers 2017-18 squad
Fawad Ahmed, Scott Boland, Daniel Christian, Jackson Coleman, Xavier Crone, Travis Dean, Aaron Finch (CA contract), Sebastian Gotch, Peter Handscomb (C) (CA contract), Sam Harper, Marcus Harris, John Hastings, Jon Holland, Glenn Maxwell (CA contract), James Muirhead, James Pattinson (CA contract), Will Pucovski, Jake Reed, Matthew Short, Peter Siddle, Blake Thomson, Chris Tremain, Guy Walker, Cameron White, Zak Evans (Rookie contract), Sam Grimwade (Rookie contract), Jackson Koop (Rookie contract), Tom O’Donnell (Rookie contract), Mitch Perry (Rookie contract), Will Sutherland (Rookie contract)
