Philippe gloves chance to fine-tune for Big Bash final

Sydney Sixers young gun Josh Philippe is leaving no stone unturned as he prepares for perhaps the biggest match of his fledgling career on Saturday in the KFC BBL Final.

While Philippe has made headlines as a swashbuckling opener in the past two seasons at the Sixers, his role as the side's wicketkeeper is just as important.

Keeping to pacemen the calibre of Josh Hazlewood, Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshius, Tom Curran and Jackson Bird provides plenty of challenges, but Philippe has done extra work this week to make sure he's sharp when standing up to the stumps to veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon.

Philippe reached out to former Australia and Sixers wicketkeeper Brad Haddin to fine-tune his skills, and on Wednesday at the SCG the 66-Test veteran put the 22-year-old through his paces.

The pair worked specifically on keeping to Lyon, Australia's most successful off-spinner who played 31 Tests alongside Haddin from 2011 to 2015.

"(Lyon) is a world-class spinner," Philippe told reporters today.

"He gets a lot of revs on the ball, gets a lot of turn and bounce.

"For me, I'm trying not to get drawn to the leg-side when he's bowling because he's always attacking the stumps.

"It's just trying to stay outside the line of the ball as long as I can and then seeing and reacting from there.

"(Haddin) just gave me a few drills to work on.

"He thought I was catching them alright, so he gave me a few drills to continue to work on and getting batter."

Philippe has pouched 11 dismissals with the gloves this summer to go with a team-high 435 runs at 36.25 and strike rate of 125.72.

The Perth-born youngster initially knocked back a deal by the Sixers but a phone call from his idol and Australia's best batter Steve Smith secured the move to the SCG.

This season Philippe has had a chance to train and play alongside Smith, who has impressed the dashing opener with how he keeps his cool in the heat of battle.

"He's incredibly calm out in the middle," Philippe said.

"He hits lots of balls. I'm trying to hit lots and lots of balls as well.

"Just the way he plays the game is incredible. He hits the ball to lots of different areas and … just the way he goes about it is incredible to watch and incredible to be out there in the middle with him and watch it firsthand."

Smith has spoken glowingly of Philippe's prospects as a future international player, urging the right-hander to continue to put in the hard yards.

"He's a good young kid who wants to learn and he's playing some really good cricket at the moment," Smith said today.

"I've spoken about him so much since I've been back with the Sixers on how talented he is.

"He's got a really bright future but he's got to keep working hard and keep pushing his game forward and wanting to get better."