Bubble-weary NSW stars lift for a huge week of finals

Sean Abbott has conceded Australia’s best cricketers are feeling the impact of the COVID-19 affected cricket season as he readies for yet another important week of cricket with the NSW Blues.

Abbott will line up for the Blues against WA in the Marsh One-Day Cup final on Sunday before facing Queensland in the Marsh Sheffield Shield final on April 15, after a year in and out of COVID-19 bubbles.

Blues allrounder Sean Abbott.Credit:Getty

The 29-year-old admitted the fatigue of the past year was starting to hit players with Abbott shifting some of his training to mental health focused sessions in recent weeks.

“It’s been a long season,” Abbott said. “We’ve had to band together a lot of the time focus less on training, but focus more on staying mentally fresh this time of the season because there’s been a couple of days where you feel like you don’t really want to get up and do your job.

“There is some fatigue there.”

Sunday’s clash will mark the first game back for Abbott after recovering from a hand injury.

Abbott split the webbing between his third and fourth fingers on his right hand late last month during a Shield game in Hobart.

The injury saw Abbott sitting on the sidelines when NSW crumbled to its lowest ever first-class score, all out for 32 against Tasmania.

“I looked down and there was blood coming out of my hand,” Abbott said. “There was probably a dozen times in the eight weeks before that where I didn’t want to look at my hand after fielding because I thought a finger was going to be pointing the wrong way.”

The injury will see Abbott wear a foam ring which sits around his middle fingers while fielding which he will remove when bowling.

NSW will field a star-studded lineup for the one day final on Sunday with Abbott alongside Australian Test bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

Sean Abbott scored a stunning century for NSW early in the Blues season.Credit:Getty Images

“I don’t like missing cricket … it’s still quite painful fielding and I’ve still just gonna knock a bit of scar tissue out which is not the most fun so we’ll see how we go,” he said.

Despite his exhaustion, Abbott will be heading to the UK at the end of May to maintain form before the T20 World Cup.

Abbott signed with Surrey this week to play in the T20 Blast in England. Abbott will look to put himself up for national selection in the short form of the game after Australia’s Test tour against South Africa was cancelled and he was unable to join the T20 tour of New Zealand which was to be held concurrently.

“I didn’t feel like I performed as well as I would have liked against India [at the end of 2020] … so it would have been nice to be able to get bridged back into the New Zealand tour,” Abbott said.

Abbott will link up with the Surrey squad for three County Championship fixtures before playing in the group stage of the T20 Blast, which finishes in July. Abbott will fly over at the end of May, but will only be required to undergo five days of home isolation.

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