Australian Twenty20 specialist Brad Hodge is one of the new
names among three changes in the Auckland side to play their
first HRV Cup game of the season against Wellington at
Westpac Stadium on Friday night.
The two other players to come into the 12 named for Friday's
game are pace bowler Lockie Ferguson and middle order batsman
Dusan Hakaraia.
Hodge will make the briefest of appearances for the Aces as
he flies in and out for just this game.
Aces coach Paul Strang is looking forward to having the
quality of Hodge available and is hoping that the recent diet
of Twenty20 cricket the Aces had at the Champions League will
stand them in good stead.
"Switching back and forth between the formats is part and
parcel of professional cricket these days but I think the
fact that we've recently been in the mindset of what we want
to do in T20 will allow us to get back into the right
patterns very quickly," Strang said.
Auckland (from): Gareth Hopkins (Captain), Michael Bates,
Craig Cachopa, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Dusan
Hakaraia, Brad Hodge, Mitchell McClenaghan, Bruce Martin,
Colin Munro, Bhupinder Singh, Lou Vincent.
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