By Marcus Uhe
One of the hottest young prodigies in Premier Cricket circles will call Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club home next season, with Yash Pednekar committing to join the Swans last week.
The 21-year-old from Berwick, who played junior cricket at North Dandenong, has represented Australia at Under-16 level and Victoria Country at national underage carnivals, and registered his first hundred in the competition last season while opening the batting for Richmond in round 14.
Swans coach Will Carr believes the infrastructure and environment at Casey-South Melbourne will offer the ideal opportunity to further grow his game.
“I’ve got to know Yash a little bit over the last couple of seasons and you get to talk to some of these players about what they’re doing and what their aspirations are and so forth, and what he was looking for, where he was looking to go with his cricket,” Carr said.
“We seemed to be in a good position to give him that support.
“He wants to go to the next level, he’s pretty clear on what he wants to achieve and he’s pretty ambitious.
“He’s looking for that opportunity and with the environment that he thinks is going to best-suit him to do that.
“There’s good support around as far as coaching is concerned, so he’s got good batting coaches to support him there.
“The opportunity to bat and have the flexibility to bat in the top four, not necessarily open, but in the top four, there’s flexibility for him as well.
“Those sorts of things seem to be a good fit for him and what he’s looking for.”
Alongside Harrish Kannan and Ashley Chandrasinghe, the Swans will boast one of the best young batting line-ups in the competition, although it is expected that Chandrasinghe’s availabilities will be limited, having established himself in the Victorian side throughout the 2022/23 season.
The fellow 21-year-old scored 119 not out on his Sheffield Shield debut against Tasmania in October and carried his bat with a gritty 46 against Western Australia in the Shield final in March.
His ascension, alongside that of allrounder Ruwantha Kellapotha, who also earned his Victorian baggy blue cap last summer, tested the depth of Carr’s side, who failed to qualify for finals last season on the back of a handful of agonising close losses.
Having played in high-pressure scenarios on many occasions already despite his age, Carr believes Pednekar’s addition will provide multiple benefits for the Swans’ lineup.
“We’re expecting and hoping that we’re not going to see too much of Ash next season and hopefully not at all moving forward,” he said.
“From our point of view we’re looking to make sure that we fill that gap, but we’re also hoping that we can provide that opportunity for Yash to go to the next level, along with others who have the same ambition.
“It’s obviously something that we did, it was a bit of an adjustment year for us to do that without Ash (Chandrasinghe) and (Ruwantha) Kellapotha as well, our balance and our structure was out a bit, when we missed either one or both of those guys.
“They’re hard guys to cover but we feel that with the addition of Yash we’re much better placed to be able to cover that, and when we have got both of those guys available, then it’s a really strong top order, even into the middle order.
“He can bat time, I’ve seen him bat often enough to know that he’s got a really good technique, so there’s some attributes there from a technical point of view I suppose.
“But also as a person himself, he’s a really driven young man, he’s going to bring an attitude for us that is what we’re looking for in a player and a person.”
