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Hampshire’s Brad Wheal Thrust Into Action With Scotland In Remarkable Fashion For Upcoming T20 World Cup
Hampshire’s Brad Wheal Thrust Into Action With Scotland In Remarkable Fashion For Upcoming T20 World Cup
The South African-born right-hand bowler is involved in Scotland’s World Cup squad with the tournament commencing on Saturday 7th February.
Just two weeks ago Brad Wheal was soaking up the sun in South Africa with his family, when he got the call. It was official. Scotland would replace Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup. Pre-season rehabilitation for Hampshire quickly became preparing for battle representing his country.
Despite Scotland being eliminated from the World Cup after a disappointing qualifying campaign in the Netherlands last summer, at the time confirming their absence from the competition, Bangladesh’s decision just two weeks ago to boycott the World Cup campaign, hosted in India and Sri Lanka, meant that by virtue of being the highest-ranked team absent from the tournament, Scotland take Bangladesh’s place in Group C.
The decision to boycott from Bangladesh just two weeks before the competition brought chaos and bewilderment to the Scottish camp who, just four days later, had re-grouped and were on a plane to India.
“It’s been a pretty whirlwind week or so. I was back in South Africa doing some rehab and training with my family out there and spending some time in the sun and that’s when I got the call and, next thing you know, I’m on a plane to India.”
Brad Wheal
Wheal, who initially joined Hampshire in 2015 on a development contract, quickly impressed for the Second XI before making his debut later in the 2015 season. Despite holding a British passport, Wheal has represented Scotland previously at both ODI and IT20 level.
[On the situation and how aware he was of it] “I knew just as much as everybody else, to be honest. Things happened so quickly and it was such a fluid situation that was out of our control.As a team we were just trying to prepare ourselves the best way we could without really knowing the circumstances. There is a lot of logistics involved as well as preparing yourself for the World Cup, such as visas and kits in a quick period of time. It was pretty chaotic.”
Brad Wheal
The rapidly evolving situation of Scotland’s sudden qualification to the competition meant it was all hands on deck to ensure that, although their place was secured, they could actually get to India and Sri Lanka in order to compete, as a late scramble to organise visas, kit and flights for all the players proved necessary to assemble to cavalry.
“Management had to figure out how to get everybody together, get kit sorted, visas, flights and everything that goes along with that. We found out and we were on the plane on the Wednesday.
Most of my kit was still in the UK so I had to get Brad Currie to fetch some kit for me from the ground at Hampshire. I was travelling with very minimal kit so thankfully that was possible. The flights were a bit all over the place, not everyone arrived at the same time. We had people arriving in a few drips and drabs over a couple of days, and I think it might have been Sunday we had everyone from the team together again all at once."
In an ideal world, the prep you’re getting is not what we’ve had over the last couple of weeks but to be honest everyone here backs their ability. Something we’ve spoken about as a team is that we’re obviously incredibly disappointed to have not made the World Cup in the first place. The expectation is that we should be not just qualifying but competing and showing the other nations what we can do as a team.”
Brad Wheal
The timing was impeccable for Wheal who, having had surgery on an injury in October, was nursing back to full strength over the winter months. Putting himself through the paces with rehabilitation and training ahead of another season adorning the Rose and Crown crew of Hampshire, Wheal believes he was fortunate his recovery meant he was able to be selected for Cricket Scotland’s T20 World Cup campaign.
“I was getting myself back up and running after a little surgery in October. I’ve been building up my bowling and getting myself fit and ready to go again, so my plan was to stay out there and get my bowling and training done and then into pre-season.
I’m doing well [after my surgery]. The timing of the World Cup and getting the call really couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve only just got myself back up to 100% so it was perfect timing. If it had been a couple of weeks earlier, I probably wouldn’t be here because my body wouldn’t be in a place to get me here.”
Brad Wheal
Scotland’s opening tie in the T20 World Cup is against West Indies, before other group matches against Italy, England and Nepal.
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Celebrate 25 years of The Bowl with a retro party night as Hampshire Hawks face Surrey at Utilita Bowl on Friday 29 May, featuring live music, throwback fun and Vitality Blast action.
