McDermott eyes IPL after record-breaking BBL season

Hobart Hurricanes opener Ben McDermott is eyeing a possible IPL deal for the first time after today earning a recall to Australia's T20 squad and being announced as the KFC BBL|11 Player for the Tournament.

The right-hander was the tournament's top scorer with 577 runs at a strike rate of 153.86 and finished three votes clear of Melbourne Stars pair Glenn Maxwell and Joe Clarke.

He scored back-to-back centuries in late December, becoming the first Big Bash player to achieve the feat, and narrowly fell short of what would have been a fourth career BBL hundred when he made 93 against the Brisbane Heat in January.

McDermott, who has never played in the Indian Premier League, said today if he didn't get picked up this year after the Big Bash season he's had, he's not sure he ever will.

McDermott has registered for the mega IPL auction that will be held in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13.

"There's not too much I can do now, it's all up to those people in charge," the 27-year-old said.

"I'm excited. It's always an exciting time just to watch, last year I remember Riley Meredith getting picked up for the big bucks and sitting there watching him in our hotel rooms in quarantine in New Zealand."

McDermott's impressive season has earned him a national recall for Australia's T20 series against Sri Lanka next month and he says he feels more ready than ever to step up to the next level.

McDermott has played 17 T20Is and two ODIs in his career so far, managing a top score of just 35, with his last appearance in national colours during the 4-1 series loss to Bangladesh in August.

"I don't think that I wasn't ready to play for Australia (before), but I do feel ready now. I feel like I'm at the top of my game," he said.

"I've developed a lot of learnings through those experiences. They haven't been good ones, I won't shy away from that, but I've definitely learned from those experiences and hopefully I come back well."

McDermott also revealed he ruptured his right testicle on the eve of the Big Bash season, which required surgery and caused him to miss the Hurricanes' first two games.

"In a centre wicket practice we were practicing the (Power) Surge and it was young Josh Kann bowling to me and I under edged one onto my box, which sort of jammed down," he said.

"It turned out it needed surgery; it was minor, but same time, it wasn't very comfortable.

"(I'm) pumped with the way I came back and probably came back a little bit earlier than I expected and glad I did in the end.

"(There's) a little bit of disappointment (from a team perspective) from that last finals game. I think we could have gone a little bit further than that this year.

"But nice today to sit back and part that team stuff and enjoy what's been a nice season personally."

It's the fourth time in 11 seasons that a Hurricanes player has been named the league's best after Ben Dunk (in BBL|03) and D'Arcy Short (in BBL|07 and BBL|08).

In votes tallied by the match officials throughout the regular season, McDermott finished on 25 votes to be ahead of Clarke and Maxwell on 22 as well as Perth's Mitchell Marsh and Adelaide's Matt Short on 21.

Eight of the top nine vote getters were named in the official team of the tournament on Monday, which is picked by the league's eight coaches.

Maxwell was a notable absentee from that side while none of the four frontline bowlers in the Team of the Tournament – Peter Siddle, Andrew Tye, Rashid Khan and Hayden Kerr – were among the umpires' leading vote-getters.

KFC BBL|11 – Player of the Tournament 

Ben McDermott – 25 votes

Joe Clarke – 22

Glenn Maxwell – 22 

Mitchell Marsh – 21 

Matt Short – 21

Daniel Sams – 17

Josh Philippe – 16 

Moises Henriques – 15 

Tom Rogers – 15 

Aaron Finch – 14 

Kurtis Patterson – 14

KFC BBL Player of the Tournament

BBL|01: David Hussey (Stars)

BBL|02: Aaron Finch (Renegades)

BBL|03: Ben Dunk (Hurricanes)

BBL|04: Jacques Kallis (Thunder)

BBL|05: Chris Lynn (Heat)

BBL|06: Chris Lynn (Heat)

BBL|07: D'Arcy Short (Hurricanes)

BBL|08: D'Arcy Short (Hurricanes)

BBL|09: Marcus Stoinis (Stars)

BBL|10: Josh Philippe (Sixers)

BBL|11: Ben McDermott (Hurricanes)