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JLT Cup squad preview: Western Australia

Western Australia will be confident they have the squad capable of claiming back-to-back JLT Cup titles

The squad: Ashton Turner (c), Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Matt Kelly, Joel Paris, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Jonathan Wells

Possible starting XI: Short, Inglis (wk), Cartwright, Stoinis, Turner, Wells, Agar, Coulter-Nile, Richardson, Paris, Tye

Who they're missing: Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh (Australia duties), Jason Behrendorff (managed)

The 2017 result: Champions

The inside word with Hilton Cartwright

Young gun: Josh Inglis was our back-up wicketkeeper to Sam Whiteman a couple of years ago, but after Sam's injury he's had some opportunities for us, particularly in Shield cricket. He's performed really in the pre-season; he made 180 in a practice match in Brisbane, so I think he's filled a bit of a gap in the opening role with Shaun Marsh going away with the Test side. He's a big stroke player so he'll be one to watch.

Player to watch: I think our senior spearhead Nathan Coulter-Nile has been building up well. Obviously with his injuries, he's getting to know his body well and know when he's bowling too much or needs to bowl more. He's the guy to watch out for; he's ready to go, he's been out the game for almost 12 months now so he's ready to kick on.

Team strength: I think our bowling is definitely our strength. I think just about everyone is going to be available ... a lot of teams are going to lose their quicks and spinners to national selection, but we pretty much have a full squad of bowlers to pick from. I think in such a short tournament, to have all your quicks available is always going to be a threat to opposing teams.

Biggest threat: I haven't looked too much at the other states, but I think it's always hard to go past Queensland early in the season purely because they play on turf wickets for their whole pre-season. I think always gives them a bit of a leg-up on some other states early on. And you also look at guys like Mitch Swepson and Jack Wildermuth, there's a lot of players who have been performing really well at the highest level. 

The fixtures
September 18 v New South Wales (WACA Ground, D/N)
September 22 v South Australia (WACA Ground, D/N)
September 26 v Victoria (Junction Oval)
September 28 v Queensland (Hurstville Oval)
October 1 v Tasmania (Hurstville Oval)


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