Jordan Silk – Part 1: The Tasmanian Tiger

Even since he stepped onto the scene, Jordan Silk has been a beloved member of the Tasmania Tigers team.

He initially forced his way into Tasmania’s stacked 2012-2013 team, scoring 347 runs across his three games and making 108 in the Sheffield Shield Final against Queensland, which the Tigers would go on to win.

He’s scored seven first-class centuries in total for Tasmania and captained the side numerous times.

While the Tigers only won their first Shield game of the season recently, Silk is buoyed by some of the signs he’s seen from every performance.

“We’d obviously like to have won a few more games than what we have this season,” Silk told The Inner Sanctum.

“We haven’t given up all hope of playing in a Shield final this year, it’s mathematically probably still a chance, but we obviously need to win our final three games. But I’m excited by what this group can do and there’s still a fair bit of cricket to play out for the rest of the season. ”

Tasmania has been without some of its regular starters for parts of the season, as Matthew Wade, Riley Meredith, and Ben McDermott were all in the Australian T20 squad that went over to New Zealand.

But it’s allowed several players to step up in their absence.

“It’s given opportunities to someone like Caleb Jewell who’s come in and really performed, making that big 100 for us against Queensland.

“There’s obviously guys like Nathan (Ellis), Beauy (Beau Webster), and Jackson Bird, who’s our greatest-ever wicket-taker in Tassie. We’ve got some really nice bowling options there and we get to hopefully add in Peter Siddle who I think should be right for the next game and will be a massive inclusion for us.”

But beyond anything else, Silk is thankful to be playing cricket during such a difficult and uncertain time for the majority of the world.

“I still think we’re incredibly lucky to be doing what we do.

“To be able to play as much cricket as we’ve been able to, it’s a credit to Cricket Australia and a credit to all the players for being able to adjust, there’s been numerous amounts of weeks spent away from families and partners.

“It’s a season like no other, but one I’m still grateful to have played a fair bit of cricket in.”

There is an increased focus on Shield cricket right now after Australia’s tour to South Africa was cancelled.

It’s left a cricket-shaped hole for fans and the media and allowed the Australian Test squad to play domestic cricket.

Silk admitted that the current situation doesn’t feel too different from any other season, but said it has spawned numerous positives for the competition.

“Even just getting home from training yesterday and being able to flick on a Shield game on Fox Sports, that’s something we probably really haven’t had ever before.

“It’s going to be a season where it will almost predominantly feature the Test team throughout the whole summer, that’s exciting for Shield cricket. It obviously lifts the standard of the whole competition and with South Africa being canceled and with two-day Test cricket (in reference to India vs England), it’s probably going to bring more attention to Shield cricket which is great.”

Tasmania has benefitted enormously by having Australian Test team captain Tim Paine around for the whole season.

Beyond the skills, he brings with the bat and behind the stumps, Silk said having someone with Paine’s leadership experience is invaluable.

“You can’t buy the experience that he brings to our group. It’s only going to help the younger players coming through, he’s really good at giving them the confidence to go out there and back their game.

“Having someone like Tim lead our group is awesome for us, he’s been doing it for a number of years now with the Australian side and doing a great job. To bring someone like him back in, it probably gives us a bit more confidence I guess as players that we’re being led in the right direction, and we know technically that Tim is very good at doing what he does.”

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