Hong Kong has announced a 15-man squad for its upcoming tour of Australia and while most aren’t household names, punters can rest assured there will be some serious cricketers on show against the Sydney Thunder at Wade Park on Sunday afternoon.
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The Hong Kong squad flies out on Thursday before heading to the colour city for Sunday’s back-to-back Twenty20 blockbusters with the Thunder, the first of five games the international side will play during its stint in Australia.
The 15-man squad includes four of Hong Kong’s top five leading T20 run-scorers since the nation’s inaugural game in March of 2014 and three of the top five leading wicket-takers as well.
Babar Hayat – Hong Kong’s top run-scorer in both T20 and One-Day Internationals – will skipper the side as expected, with Aizaz Khan his deputy.
The squad also includes one new face who wasn’t in Kenya for Hong Kong’s recent International Cricket Council World Cricket League fixtures in Jason Lui, who comes in fresh from the Cricket Hong Kong Dragons team that recently toured Japan for the East Asia Cup.
The Dragons are Cricket Hong Kong’s all-Chinese development squad, designed to fast-track local cricketers’ progress into the national team proper.
"I am both excited and nervous to be able to represent Hong Kong again in the upcoming Australia tour," Lui said.
"I believe this will be a good chance to improve and develop my skills in cricket, it will also be a chance to get a taste of Hong Kong team’s culture. I hope to contribute to the team both on and off the field."
Dragons coach Chris Pickett said Lui will handle the step up and believes his game will improve sharply from the experience the Australian tour will provide – particularly the two games at Wade Park against the reigning Big Bash League champions.
"Jason is a very talented player coming back into the fold with the Dragons last year and has immediately made an impact," Pickett said.
"He's contributed well with the bat and is one of the more gifted players in the Chinese set-up and has a good knowledge of the game.
"For Jason it will be the first time in the top echelon of the national squad so it will be a huge learning curve but he's got the potential to do well.
"There will be some new stuff and eye openers but that's the same for anyone coming into that system."
After Sunday’s games Hong Kong heads to Sydney to play NSW’s second XI in two 50-over, one-day games and then further north to Coffs Harbour to play the Sydney Sixers on December 16.
Sunday’s opening game starts at 12.30pm and the second at 4pm, with gates opening at 11.30am.
Tickets are still available via Ticketek and will be sold on the gate as well.
HONG KONG: Babar Hayat ©, Aizaz Khan, Tanwir Afzal, Nadeem Ahmed, Tanveer Ahmed, Christopher Carter, Ehsan Khan, Nizakat Khan, Waqas Khan, Jason Lui, Kyle Christie, Anshuman Rath, Kinchit Shah, Karandeep Singh, Shahid Wasif.