New South Wales refocus after 'tough week' following Shipperd axing

New South Wales batter Kurtis Patterson has admitted to an odd feeling around the team as they prepare for the resumption of the season in the knowledge that coach Greg Shipperd has been axed from his role.

Shipperd was told late last week that he would effectively be sacked with a year to go on his NSW contract, but he will see out the domestic season which has four rounds of the Sheffield Shield remaining plus the closing stages of the One-Day Cup where NSW are in contention for both finals.

"Yeah, it is different. I think that's probably where my head's at in terms of trying to describe it. It's a different feeling," Patterson, who will play his 100th Shield game for NSW this week, said. "But it is professional sport. No one's safe in their job forever. It's the nature of the beast. Shippy's taken it really well and I think out of respect for him almost, we all need to knuckle down and take it the same and kind of get on with our jobs.

"It's been a bit of a tough week I think for all of us. Shield cricket's difficult and it's another curveball we've got to deal with. But I guess just really feeling for Greg and to his credit, as everyone would expect, he's taken it like a legend that he is.

"I think yesterday probably a few blokes were a bit unsure of how the day was going to go, but we just knuckled down, got straight into it and trying to do our best to win this game against South Australia."

Shipperd took NSW from a bottom-placed finish in the 2022-23 season, where he came on part way through the campaign, to third in 2023-24 and fourth last summer. They also made the final of the One-Day Cup in 2023-24. Players have continued to move into the national set-up with Sam Konstas playing Test cricket and Jack Edwards recently debuting in the T20Is against Pakistan.

There has also been the emergence of some young players including Joel Davies, Lachlan Shaw and Ryan Hadley with Patterson saying Shipperd was "without a doubt" leaving NSW in a better position.

"We were struggling there for a while," he said. "I think we lost a bit of our identity and lost the idea of how to win and structure games in cricket to set yourself up to win. There's no doubt Shippy was the right man for the job when he came in. He's got so much experience and that counts for something.

"He certainly has turned us around. We've been competitive in Shield cricket without being as consistent as what we would like. This [season] is a nice opportunity to change that around [and] it starts this week

"There is a lot of talent there and it feels like the last six months a lot of that talent has clicked in one format of the game or the other. So I'm sure whoever gets the job is going to have a nice platform to build off."

Meanwhile, Patterson, who is averaging 27.81 this season, will join Phil Emery, Moises Henriques, Greg Matthews, Geoff Lawson and Peter Nevill in making a century of Shield appearances for NSW.

"As a cricketer, you're always tormented, you always wish there were a few less Shield games and a few more Tests in there," he said. "But I grew up idolising this cricket team and to play 100 games is something I never thought of. I'm really, really proud to be able to tick it off this week."

Edwards has returned from Pakistan in time to lead the side against South Australia with Josh Philippe also available after the tour. Steven Smith is unavailable and is not expected to feature in the remainder of the Shield season despite there being a window in his schedule. Uncapped quick Peter Francis has been included.

South Australia will have Alex Carey available alongside Brendan Doggett.

New South Wales squad: Jack Edwards (capt), Joel Davies, Peter Francis, Ryan Hadley, Liam Hatcher, Sam Konstas, Kurtis Patterson, Josh Philippe, Will Salzmann, Tanveer Sangha, Lachlan Shaw, Charlie Stobo

South Australia squad: Jordan Buckingham, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Mackenzie Harvey, Henry Hunt, Hanno Jacobs, Jake Lehmann, Nathan McAndrew, Nathan McSweeney (capt), Lloyd Pope, Jason Sangha, Liam Scott.