‘Are we the unluckiest team?’: Bulls face injury crisis

The only team to beat the runaway Sheffield Shield leaders this season have a severely depleted squad

Queensland’s push to avenge last season’s Sheffield Shield final defeat is being threatened by an injury epidemic, and comes despite Marnus Labuschagne’s men proving kryptonite to this season’s standout team.

The Bulls have this summer been the only side to defeat runaway leaders Victoria, adding a tight 36-run win at the MCG on Sunday to their seven-wicket pink-ball victory at the Gabba in November.

One more outright triumph for the Vics will likely lock in a home final at the Junction Oval in late-March – and the Bulls are in the box seat to meet them unless their remarkable injury misfortune gets the better of them.

Queensland have so far used 23 different players through the first seven rounds, more than half of them frontline seamers or pace-bowling allrounders. Four have come from off their contrast list.

Their playing stocks dwindled further when Matthew Renshaw joined Xavier Bartlett in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad this month.

That came as coach Johan Botha confirmed pacemen Gurinder Sandhu (knee), Tom Whitney (foot stress fracture), Mark Steketee (hamstring) will all miss the rest of the season, while batter Jack Clayton is doubtful after suffering a recurrence of a knee injury in a One-Day Cup match earlier this week.

Callum Vidler, who turned heads with his raw pace in last season’s Shield final loss to South Australia, also looks unlikely to feature this season after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back in September.

The other side of the coin for Queensland were the impressive efforts of their young seamers this week. Tom Straker, 20, took a career-best 7-75 against Victoria to emerge as a strong new-ball partner for Test quick Michael Neser, while Jem Ryan, 21, shone on first-class debut with three wickets including the prized scalp of the Shield’s leading run-scorer, Peter Handscomb.

Hayden Kerr, the 29-year-old who has made his name as a T20 allrounder mainly for the Sydney Sixers, initially did not hold a state contract for 2025-26 before Queensland shrewdly made him a late addition.

“We’re going to have to rely on the guys that played in this game, and hopefully a couple of others back in Brisbane. I don’t know what it is – are we just the unluckiest team?” Botha told reporters on Sunday.

“It just seems like we can’t get guys on the park for two, three, four games in a row.

“We’re going to have to hope and pray that Michael Neser doesn’t go anywhere and he doesn’t get injured, and that these young guys can go with him – which was great to see this game.

“Jem (Ryan) on debut was really good. ‘Strakes’ (Straker) was very good in probably only his tenth Shield game.

“‘Kerry’ (Kerr) hasn’t played a lot for us, he’s obviously come to us from New South (Wales), and he did a good job in this game … he’s a very good allrounder. He’s going to be crucial for us in this run-in to the final.

“We’re probably one or two injuries away of going back to club bowlers again.”

Two more quicks, Tom Balkin and Oli Patterson, made their List A debuts earlier in the week in the One-Day Cup. Jack Wildermuth has played only two Shield games this summer, while Sam Geyer, Sam Skelly, Benji Floros and James Bazley all played earlier in the season despite not holding a state deal.

Bartlett is doubtful to pull on the whites again this season given he holds an Indian Premier League contract to fulfil following the World Cup. But Renshaw could be back for the final few matches of the season, which coincides with a possible Usman Khawaja absence with his wife due to give birth in March.  

“We’re a bit light in probably both departments at the moment,” said Botha, whose side next face SA at the Gabba from February 16.

“But it creates opportunities and hopefully our senior guys can keep standing up, and the young guys can go with them and keep putting ourselves in a position to win games.

“We might not always quite pull it off but … hopefully that’s where this team’s character shows and we can get those results going our way.”

Botha will envy his Victoria counterpart Chris Rogers’ contrasting headache.

The selection crunch will be on when captain Will Sutherland, Ashes star Scott Boland (both managed for the Queensland game) and Under-19 World Cup skipper Ollie Peake all return for their trip to Perth to face Western Australia in eight days.

Marcus Harris is targeting a comeback for St Kilda in the next round of Premier Cricket in a fortnight after undergoing back surgery in December and could be available for the final two Shield matches as well as the final. That will help offset the broken finger suffered by Tom Rogers while fielding against the Bulls.

There is also the prospect of axed Australia T20 batter Matthew Short playing some red-ball cricket before he too jets off for the IPL, knocking him out of contention to play in the Shield decider from March 26.

“It’s a very tricky situation, and I think we’re going to have a couple of very disappointed players,” Rogers said.

“It comes down to tough decisions and some players will unfortunately miss. We’ve got some really good options and we can look forward to what’s to come for the rest of the season.”

Sheffield Shield 2025-26 standings