Western Australian opener Cameron Bancroft is eyeing a potential Sheffield Shield return next month as he continues recovering from a shoulder injury he sustained during the Big Bash League.
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The 32-year-old missed the second half of the Sydney Thunder’s BBL campaign following a nasty collision with teammate Daniel Sams during January’s match against the Perth Scorchers at Optus Stadium. He fractured his shoulder and nose during the sickening incident and has not played since.
However, Bancroft has revealed he hopes to be back in action near the start of March,
targeting the final two Sheffield Shield rounds of the 2024/25 season. Western Australia will take on New South Wales at the WACA from March 6 before facing Victoria at the same venue from March 15.
“The shoulder is tracking alright,” Bancroft said.
“Obviously a bit of trauma there to deal with and manage but it’s been recovering pretty well.
“It’s really new for me actually being injured and missing cricket, so definitely learning some things that I’ve seen a lot of other players experience.
“It takes time for the body to heal but I’m getting really close and looking forward to playing some cricket at the start of March.”
On Wednesday, Bancroft was named Gloucestershire’s red-ball captain for the 2025 season, replacing all-rounder Graeme van Buuren in the role. He was the Bristol-based county’s second-leading run-scorer across formats last year with 1629 runs at 40.73, including four hundreds.
Bancroft helped Gloucestershire win last season’s edition of the T20 Blast, finishing with 534 runs at 33.37 including a half-century in the triumphant final against Somerset.
The right-hander previously led Durham in the County Championship in 2019 and the T20 Blast in 2021.
“Cameron had an impressive year with us in 2024 and led by example in everything he did,” Gloucestershire head coach Mark Alleyne said.
“I love his dedication to preparation and his subsequent transference of that in the middle. His experience of playing Test match cricket and winning four-day titles gives him a broad base of experience which our players can feed off.”
Gloucestershire finished seventh on the County Championship Division Two standings last year, but Bancroft is adamant the county can push for promotion in 2025.
“We had great lessons last year,” Bancroft said.
“We’ll draw on those lessons, keep working on our strengths and the things we’re really good at. If we can do that, we’re going to be a team that’s going to be really hard to beat and be really competitive.”
Gloucestershire gets its County Championship underway on April 4, facing Derbyshire in Derby.
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